REESE    LIBRARY 

;HK 

UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 


Acctssions 


Shelf  No. 


THE    INFINITE 


AND 


THE   FINITE. 


BY    THEOPHILUS    PARSONS. 


'UNIVERSITY!) 

O  S  T  O  N  : 
ROBERTS      BROTHERS. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1872,  by 

THEOPHILUS     PARSONS, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington, 


CAMBRIDGE: 
PRKSS  OK  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY       5 

WHAT  is  MATTER? 12 

I.     OF  THE  BELIEF  IN  GOD 20 

II.     OF  THE   NATURAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES  23 

III.  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  INTELLECTUAL  FACULTIES  28 

IV.  OF  THE  NATURAL  AND   THE    SPIRITUAL  AF- 

FECTIONAL   FACULTIES 42 

V.     OF  SOME  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAL 

AND  THE  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES      ....  51 
VI.     OF    THE    COMPARATIVE    STRENGTH    OF   THE 

NATURAL  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES  .  63 

VII.     OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 70 

VIII.     OF  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD     .     .  78 

IX.     GOD  AN  INFINITE  PERSON 80 

X.     MAN  is  IMMORTAL 8(3 

XI.     OF  FREEDOM 91 

XII      WHENCE  THE   CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  FREEDOM  ?  100 

XIII      OUR  LIFE  OUR  OWN  AND  YET  GOD'S  LIFE    .  112 
XIV.     WHAT   is   THE    PREPARATION    FOR   ANOTHER 

LIFE? ; 119 

XV.     How  THE  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES  REGARD  THE 

NATURAL  FACULTIES 121 

XVI      OF  THE  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD 127 

XVII.     REVELATION  181 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

XVIII.  THE  SUCCESSION  OF  REVELATIONS      .  * .    .  134 

XIX.     CORRESPONDENCE 137 

XX.  THE  TEST  OF  CORRESPONDENCE      ....  140 

XXI.     THE  ANCIENT  CHURCHES 142 

XXII.     THE  BIBLE     .- 143 

XXIII.  THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION     ...  146 

XXIV.  THE  SECOND  CHRISTIAN  REVELATION      .     .  148 
XXV.  A    DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN    THE    MATERIAL 

WORLD  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL  WORLD  .     .  152 

XXVI.     SWEDENBORG 156 

XXVII.     SPIRITISM 103 

XXVIII.  WlIO    RECEIVE    THE    LATEST    REVELATION        .  1G9 

XXIX.  THE  WORD  OF  GOD  CANNOT  PASS  AWAY      .  173 

XXX.     FUTURE  REVELATIONS 175 

XXXI.     HE  COMES  WITH  POWER 177 

XXXII.    AND  WITH  GREAT  GLORY 181 


UNIVERSITY 
^^ilPQU^^^ 

THE  INFINITE  AND    THE  FINITE. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

WHATEVER  is  was  created,  excepting  the  Creator. 
If  we  go  up  with  the  ascending  series  of  cause  and 
effect,  when  we  come  to  the  summit  we  find  that 
which  was  not  caused ;  for  if  it  were  caused,  we  must 
go  a  step  farther  to  find  its  cause.  And  that  which 
is  at  the  summit,  and  is  itself  not  caused,  has  the 
whole  series  below  it,  and  must  be  the  cause  of  all 
causation. 

The  totality  of  being  consists  of  Creator  and 
created.  But  the  Creator,  whom  we  will  call  God, 
did  not  create  out  of  nothing.  If  God  willed  that 
something  should  be  which  was  not  before,  His  will, 
His  thought,  His  power,  were  there,  and  clothed 
themselves  with  the  effect  and  were  in  the  thing  He 
caused  to  be.  He  did  not  create  out  of  nothing ;  for 
if  what  He  created  consisted  of  nothing,  it  would 
be  nothing.  He  created  from  Himself,  and  is  Him 
self  the  substance  of  all  that  is ;  for  He  created  all 
things  from  His  own  substance,  and  is  in  all  things 


6  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

that  are.  In  the  phrase  which  the  Apostles  used  so 
often,  He  is  "  All  in  All."  Is  this  Pantheism  ?  It 
would  be  so  if  we  held  that  the  totality  of  created 
things  constituted  God,  and  all  the  God  there  is. 
But  then  there  would  be  no  Creator.  The  doctrine 
above  expressed  is  discriminated  from  Pantheism,  by 
two  truths  which  find  no  place  in  that  dreary  theory. 
One  is,  that  God,  the  cause,  exists  prior  to  the  created 
universe,  or  to  the  effect,  and  remains  as  distinct 
from  it  after  creation  as  before. 

Prior  in  degree,  in  nature:  I  do  not  say  prior 
in  time ;  for  when  we  attempt  a  consideration  of  the 
beginning  in  time  of  the  putting  forth  of  Divine 
power  in  the  wo"rk  of  creation,  we  go  beyond  1  he 
limitations  of  finite  thought.  But  God  is  prior  to 
the  universe  in  degree,  and  perfectly  distinct  from  it 
while  He  forms  and  fills  it. 

The  other  truth  —  which  is  indeed  but  another 
form  of  the  first,  or  a  consequence  of  it  —  is  that  the 
created  universe  is  as  distinct  from  God  as  He  is  dis 
tinct  from  His  creation ;  for  God,  the  Creator,  gives  to 
every  thing  He  creates  to  be  itself,  to  be  other  than 
Him,  and  distinct  from  Him ;  or,  in  other  words,  He 
so  creates  every  thing  that  it  may  possess  its  own 
identity  or  selfhood,  and  thus  be  itself  and  not 
Him.  In  the  lowest,  or  mineral  kingdom,  by  force 
of  this  selfhood  the  solid  earth  with  all  it  contains, 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

without  knowledge  and  without  will,  performs  its 
functions  as  the  home,  the  feeder,  and  the  instru 
ment  of  all  things  that  live.  The  vegetable  king 
dom  performs  its  functions,  and  especially  that  of 
drawing  from  the  lower  kingdom  nutriment,  and 
preparing  therefrom  nutriment  for  the  kingdom 
above  it.  It  does  this  without  knowledge  and  with 
out  will,  but  with  the  semblance  of  both  in  many  of 
what  seem  its  efforts  to  do  its  work. 

Animals  resting  on  the  mineral  kingdom  and  fed 
by  the  vegetable  kingdom,  by  force  of  this  selfhood, 
not  only  do  their  appointed  work,  but  do  this  with  a 
consciousness  of  every  effort  they  make,  and  with 
every  effort  springing  from  a  will,  but  with  no  knowl 
edge  whatever  of  the  ultimate  purpose  of  what  they 
do  and  what  they  are.  And  then  we  rise  to  man.  He 
is  above  animals  in  all  respects,  and  has  what  they 
have,  and  more ;  and  all  with  a  boundless  capacity  of 
indefinite  development.  In  nothing  is  this  superi 
ority  greater  than  in  the  nature  and  effect  of  that 
selfhood  or  identity  which  makes  him  to  be  himself, 
and  perfectly  distinct  from  his  Creator.  And  the 
higher  character  and  greater  completeness  of  this 
selfhood  in  man  is  the  cause  from  which  the  whole 
of  his  superiority,  including  his  immortality,  pro 
ceeds,  and  the  ground  on  which  it  rests. 

For  this  universal  selfhood  of  creation  is  more 


8  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

than  selfhood  with  man.  It  is  in  him  ownhood,  an 
ownhood  of  his  life  and  of  himself.  For  God  gives 
to  him  to  be  most  truly  and  most  perfectly  himself, 
by  giving  to  him  this  perfect  ownhood  of  himself 
and  of  his  life. 

The  created  universe  and  all  things  in  it  are  per 
fectly  distinct  from  God.  And  man,  especially,  is 
himself,  and  not  a  part  of  God,  and  is  most  perfectly 
distinct  from  God.  And  now  we  must  remember 
that  distinctness  is  not  independence.  For  if  the 
universe  and  man  are  entirely  distinct  from  God, 
they  are  most  perfectly,  constantly,  and  absolutely 
dependent  upon  Him;  just  as  dependent  upon  Him 
always  for  their  continued  existence  as  they  were 
for  their  creation  at  the  beginning  of  their  being. 
There  can  be  no  time  to  the  eternal,  and  no  space 
to  the  infinite ;  for  only  to  us,  the  finite  and  created, 
do  time  and  space  belong.  This  must  be  so,  how 
ever  difficult  it  may  be  to  apprehend  and  apply  this 
truth.  But  in  the  degree  in  which  we  are  able  to 
comprehend  it,  and  make  use  of  it  in  our  thoughts 
concerning  God,  we  shall  be  able  to  see  that  creation 
is  not  a  completed  work,  but  the  continual,  unceas 
ing,  constant,  ever-present  work  of  an  ever-creating, 
ever-immanent  God. 

Then  we  shall  see  that  not  only  our  whole  being, 
but  every  part  and  element  of  our  being,  is  con- 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

stantly  and  unceasingly  given  to  us.  As  we  do  not 
see  to-day  by  the  light  which  came  to  us  yesterday, 
so  we  do  not  live  to-day  by  the  life  which  came  to 
us  yesterday  or  at  our  birth.  We  see  always  by 
the  light  which  comes  now,  and  we  live  always  by 
the  life  which  comes  now.  Every  affection,  every 
motive,  every  feeling,  every  thought  or  other  intel 
lectual  state  or  act,  comes  to  us  from  the  Source  of 
life,  then  when  we  possess  it. 

But  because  man  has  life,  and  this  ownhood  of  his 
life,  he  has  freedom.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  say 
more  about  freedom  hereafter.  There  are  those 
who  deny  it  altogether.  The  argument  for  its  im 
possibility,  which  to  some  minds  seems  decisive  and 
unanswerable,  is  this :  Whatever  is  must  be  the  effect 
of  some  cause.  That  cause  could  produce  only  that 
effect,  and  must  produce  that  effect.  But  that  cause 
is  itself  the  effect  of  a  prior  cause.  Carry  the  series 
as  far  backward  or  forward  as  we  will,  the  law  re 
mains  the  same.  Always  whatever  is  must  be  the 
effect  of  a  cause  which  could  not  but  produce  that 
effect,  and  could  not  produce  any  other  effect.  This 
argument,  which  is  not  wholly  unsound  as  to  things 
without  life,  is  fatally  erroneous  as  to  things  having 
life,  because  it  takes  no  notice  of  a  higher  law  than 
that  on  which  it  rests ;  and  this  is  that  freedom  is  an 
element  of  life  and  belongs  necessarily  to  life.  An 


10  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

organism  which  is  wholly  without  freedom  has  no 
life ;  it  is  a  machine ;  it  is  dead.  The  possession  of 
freedom  of  some  kind  is  that  which  differentiates 
living  organisms  from  machines.  Indeed  a  living 
organism  w'hen  it  loses  all  its  freedom  loses  all  its 
life,  and  becomes  less  than  a  machine,  because  it 
cannot  be  moved  by  a  force  from  without.  Freedom 
may  be  variously  modified  in  things  having  life,  but 
cannot  be  wholly  suppressed  and  leave  any  life. 
And  this  necessary  element  of  life,  this  freedom 
which  belongs  to  life,  enables  things  having  life  to 
act  in  some  way  and  measure  on  things  not  having 
life,  and  thus  affects  the  series  of  cause  and  effect 
which  belongs  to  them. 

Man's  ownhood  of  his  life,  and  his  freedom,  are  as 
perfect  as  if  they  were  given  him  at  the  moment  of 
his  birth,  to  last  while  he  lives  and  be  always  per 
fect.  This  freedom,  as  to  the  spiritual  part  of  his 
nature  and  his  spiritual  destiny,  is  always  perfect. 
As  to  his  external  life  and  nature,  it  is  constantly 
modified  and  restrained  just  so  far  as  his  spiritual 
interests  require.  But  his  spiritual  freedom  is  con 
stant.  Into  this  ownhood,  this  freedom,  all  that  his 
Creator  gives  him  is  constantly  given.  Life,  and  all 
the  moral  and  spiritual  elements  of  his  life,  are  sub 
jected  to  his  own  will;  and  he  may  do  with  them 
what  he  wills.  He  may  use  them  as  they  were  given 
to  be  used,  or  he  may  pervert  and  misuse  them. 


INTRODUCTORY.  11 

Hence  man,  and  man  alone,  has  duty.  Hence  he 
determines  his  own  destiny,  and  he  does  this  by 
determining  his  own  character.  Hence  are  for  him 
the  hope  and  the  possibility  of  eternal  happiness. 
And  hence  this  is  only  hope  and  possibility,  and  not 
certainty.  In  later  pages  I  may  endeavor  to  show 
that  the  highest  conceivable  happiness  of  a  created 
being  is  to  receive  into  his  own  will  and  by  his  own 
choice,  and  in  his  own  freedom  appropriate  to  him 
self,  divine  life  and  the  happiness  which  belongs  to 
it;  and  because  this  is  the  highest  happiness,  the 
divine  goodness,  because  perfect,  must  so  create  and 
govern  him  as  that  he  may  be  able  to  do  this  and 
thus  enjoy  this  happiness;  and  to  this  end  must 
give  him  ownhood  of  his  life,  and  freedom;  and 
freedom,  if  real  and  actual,  must  be  capable  of  abuse, 
and  equally  capable  of  use  and  of  abuse. 

If  we  return  to  the  material  universe,  there  too 
we  shall  find  that  creation  is  a  constant  work ;  and 
that  the  support,  the  maintenance  in  being  of  what 
has  been  created,  is  a  continual  creation  of  it.  All 
the  forces  and  energies  of  Nature  are  but  forms  and 
activities  of  the  Divine  force  which  forms  and  fills 
them,  and  which  is  determined  in  its  action  and 
manifestation  and  effect  by  the  inmost  form  or  na 
ture  of  the  created  thing  in  which  and  through 
which  it  acts ;  and  the  methods  of  its  activity  are 
what  we  call  the  laws  of  Nature. 


12  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 


WHAT    IS    MATTER? 

We  say,  and  we  say  truly,  we  live  in  a  material 
body,  and  in  a  material  world.  But  what  is  matter? 
It  has  been  already  said  that  the  Creator  creates 
the  world  from  Himself,  from  His  own  substance,  by 
causing  that  to  flow  forth  somewhat  as  heat  and 
light  flow  from  the  sun  and  sustain  the  earths  around 
it.  This  effluence,  when  it  reaches  the  farthest  limit 
to  which  it  goes  or  needs  to  go,  forms  and  consti 
tutes  the  substance  of  the  material  body  with  its 
organs  and  sensories,  and  of  the  material  world. 
The  infinite  wisdom  from  which  it  flows  forms  the 
material  world,  and  forms  all  the  things  of  the 
material  world  in  such  perfect  adaptation  to  our 
organs  and  sensories,  and  it  forms  our  organs  and 
sensories  in  such  perfect  adaptation  to  our  minds, 
that  through  these  organs  and  sensories  the  outer 
world  affects  the  mind  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce 
sensations  and  what  we  call  perceptions.  And  all 
this  adaptation  of  the  world  without  to  the  sensories 
and  the  senses,  and  to  the  mind  which  is  within  the 
senses  and  receives  their  report,  is  so  perfect,  so 
wonderful,  as  to  offer  an  irresistible  proof  that  intel 
ligent  design  has  presided  over  creation. 

But  what  do  we  know  of  matter  ?     It  is  certain, 


WHAT    IS    MATTER?  13 

and  to  whoever  thinks  it  is  obvious,  that  we  know 
directly  only  our  own  sensations,  and  our  thoughts 
about  them.  All  the  rest  is  inference.  / 

You  are  looking  at  a  tree.  What  is  it  that  you, 
the  perceiving  being,  see?  Only  a  minute  picture 
painted  on  the  back  of  the  eye.  It  is  painted  there 
because  the  eye  is  an  optical  instrument,  which,  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  optics,  brings  all  the 
rays  of  light  from  that  tree  to  a  focus  on  the  retina, 
-just  as  the  glasses  of  a  photographic  camera  bring 
all  the  rays  of  light  from  an  object  to  a  focus  on  the 
plate,  and  paint  its  picture  there.  This  is  all  the 
mind  can  see,  if  indeed  it  can  be  said  to  see  this. 

Why,  then,  do  I  think  I  am  looking  at  a  tree  of 
that  size  and  in  that  place?  Certainly  not  from 
sight  alone.  To  the  babe  the  moon  is  as  near  as  the 
lamp  on  the  table.  Presently  he  begins  to  touch 
and  handle  things.  He  moves,  and  reaches  some 
things  sooner  than  others.  The  sense  or  thought  of 
time,  of  space,  of  place,  shape  and  dimension,  of 
effort  and  resistance,  dawns  upon  him.  Day  by  day 
his  sensations  grow  more  numerous  and  diversified. 
Unconsciously  he  compares  them  and  draws  his 
inferences ;  and  all  this  before  he  is  old  enough  to 
know  his  own  thoughts  distinctly,  or  remember  them 
afterwards.  So  he  grows  up  with  a  world  around 
him,  of  which  he  has  no  more  doubt  than  of  his 


14  THE   INFINITE   AND    THE   FINITE. 

own  existence.  Nor  need  he  or  should  he  doubt. 
It  exists  as  much  as  he  does.  He  thinks  he  knows 
that  it  is  there  where  he  sees  and  feels  it,  and  that  it 
is  what  he  sees  and  feels.  But  all  he  does  know,  or 
can  know,  is  that  through  his  sensations,  and  his 
thoughts  about  his  sensations,  something  produces 
the  impressions  which  he  has. 

Idealist  philosophers  in  all  ages  have  followed  out 
this  train  of  thought,  until  it  led  some  of  them  still 
farther,  —  even  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  no 
real  world  outside  of  sensation  and  of  thought. 
This  was  a  fatal  error. 

Their  argument,  that  sensation  can  tell  us  only  of 
itself,  and  that  thought  about  sensation  can  tell  us 
only  that  these  sensations  have  a  cause,  is  sound. 
But  their  conclusion,  that  nothing  without  us  causes 
our  sensations,  so  offends  our  inevitable  convictions, 
that  these  philosophers  never  believed  it  themselves, 
and  none  ever  believed  it.  I  cannot  be  more  sure 
there  is  a  ME,  than  I  am  that  there  is  a  NOT  ME. 
And  it  is  true ;  for  the  totality  of  being  consists  of 
God,  who  is  Being  in  Himself  and  the  Source  of  all 
being,  of  spiritual  substance  created  by  Him,  and  of 
material  substance  created  by  Him ;  and  this  mate 
rial  substance  is  created  for  the  wants  and  the  use 
of  spiritual  being,  and  is  adapted  to  those  wants  and 
that  use.  But  of  what  this  substance  is,  in  itself. 


WHAT    IS    MATTEK?  15 

and  independently  of  the  sensations  it  produces, 
we  know  absolutely  nothing.  The  statement  that 
"  mind  makes  matter,"  if  used  in  one  sense,  has  some 
truth;  and  in  another  has  none  whatever.  It  is 
inaccurate  if  when  we  say  "make"  we  mean 
"create."  The  mind  does  not  create  any  thing: 
there  is  but  one  Creator,  —  God.  That  which  un 
derlies  matter  and  is  its  substance  flows  forth  from 
the  Divine  substance.  But  mind  causes,  or  rather 
co-operates  to  cause,  the  form,  shape,  incidents,  and 
appearance,  under  which  we  give  to  this  substance 
the  name  of  Matter.  This  is  not  a  false  appearance ; 
it  is  not  an  appearance  as  of  something  where  there 
is  nothing.  It  is  a  true  appearance  of  a  most  actual 
reality.  But  this  reality  is  one  of  which  we  can 
know  nothing  whatever,  but  from  the  action  of  mind 
on  the  impressions  made  by  this  substance  on  the 
mind  through  and  by  means  of  the  senses.  Nor  can 
we  in  this  way  learn  or  know  any  thing  of  this 
substance  as  it  is  in  itself. 

The  exceeding  importance  of  this  truth  lies  in  the 
rational  belief  which  it  permits  us,  that  we  may 
have  a  body,  a  home,  and  a  world,  when  we  leave 
this  world.  If  material  substance  is  but  the  efflu 
ence  from  and  of  the  Divine  substance,  caused  to  be 
and  to  affect  us  in  a  certain  way  for  our  use  and 
benefit  while  we  live  in  this  world,  the  same  efflu- 


16  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

ence  from  the  same  Divine  substance  may  provide 
for  us,  when  we  rise  from  this  body,  a  body  and  all 
organs  and  sensories  of  spiritual  substance,  and  a 
home  and  a  world  of  spiritual  substance,  as  exqui 
sitely  adapted  to  our  organs  and  sensories,  and  to  act 
on  us  and  on  our  minds  through  our  organs  and  sen 
sories,  as  this  world  now  is. 

We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  we,  our  bodies, 
or  our  world,  will  be  just  the  same  then  and  there 
that  they  are  now  and  here.  But  I  would  defer  to 
a  later  part  of  this  work  my  reasons  for  believing 
that  they  will  be  not  the  same,  but  similar,  or  rather 
correspondent.  Let  me  now,  however,  add  a  word 
concerning  Space  and  Time.  They  are  not  beings, 
not  existing  things :  they  are  instruments  or  forms 
or  methods  of  thought.  And  in  saying  this  I  only 
repeat  what  all  philosophy  now  asserts ;  and  I  will 
not  attempt  to  present  the  familiar  argument  which 
leads  to  this  conclusion. 

We  look  at  an  insect  one-tenth  of  an  inch  long. 
We  wish  to  examine  it,  and  we  make  use  of  a  lens 
magnifying  tenfold  in  linear  direction,  and  the  insect 
is  now  an  inch  long.  We  say  it  is  one-tenth  of  an 
inch  long,  and  seems  to  be  an  inch  long  because  we 
see  it  through  that  convex  glass.  But  it  is  the  con 
vex  lenses  of  the  eye  which  make  it  appear  one-tenth 
of  an  inch  long.  If  they  were  more  or  less  convex, 


WHAT   IS    MATTER?  17 

it  would  be  longer  or  shorter.  Perhaps  we  see,  in 
a  book  on  Entomology,  two  drawings  of  the  insect, 
one  a  tenth  of  an  inch  long,  and  this  is  marked 
"  actual  size  " ;  and  the  other  an  inch  long,  and  this 
is  marked  "  magnified  ten  times."  And  yet  one  of 
these  is  just  as  much  the  actual  size  as  the  other. 
Seen  through  the  lenses  of  the  eye,  it  has  the 
shorter  length ;  if  we  add  another  lens,  it  has  the 
greater  length.  If  the  added  lens  is  concave,  it 
looks  less  than  one-tenth  of  an  inch.  We  cannot 
see  it  at  all  except  through  the  lenses  of  the  eye ; 
and  their  form  and  arrangement,  and  nothing  else 
whatever,  determine  the  length  it  shall  seem  to  have. 
This  we  may  diminish  or  enlarge  at  pleasure  by 
using  additional  lenses;  and  through  all  these 
lenses,  those  in  the  head  and  those  outside  of  it, 
light,  acting  in  accordance  with  certain  known  laws, 
paints  the  picture  we  contemplate,  and  paints  it 
such  in  shape  and  dimension  as  those  lenses  — 
whether  made  for  us  or  made  by  us  —  determine. 
What,  then,  is  an  inch,  or  a  tenth  of  an  inch,  in 
length  ? 

Let  a  reader  imagine  that,  while  he  sleeps  to 
night,  the  whole  world,  with  all  things  in  it,  becomes 
ten  or  a  hundred  times  larger  than  before ;  and  that 
lie  too,  and  all  that  is  in  him  or  belongs  to  him, 
within  or  without,  and  all  motion  and  all  action, 

2 


18  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

grow  in  precisely  the  same  way  and  proportion. 
He  could  know  nothing  of  this  change  when  he 
wakes.  Measured  by  any  standard  he  could  apply, 
spontaneously  or  by  effort,  the  outer  world  would  be 
just  what  it  was  before,  and  would  seem  so. 

Has  it,  then,  any  actual  size  or  place?  It  has 
existence,  but  it  has  no  size  or  place  excepting  what 
sensation  and  thought  cause  it  to  have.* 


*  One  of  the  latest  and  most  important  discoveries  of  natural 
science  has  suggested  that  all  the  forces  and  energies  of  Nature, 
electric,  magnetic,  or  actinic,  heat  and  light,  and  even  motion  itself, 
are  resolvable  into  each  other,  and  are  but  the  varied  forms  and 
effects  of  one  force.  This  new  truth  is  sometimes  called  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Unity  of  Force.  It  is  not  yet  perhaps  established,  and  cer 
tainly  not  well  understood.  When  it  is,  it  will  be  extended  upwards 
until  it  embrace^  mind  and  thought  and  affection ;  and  yet  farther, 
until  it  covers  all  the  life  and  activities  of  the  spiritual  world ;  and 
yet  farther,  until  it  touches  the  throne  of  God.  For  there  is  primarily 
and  originally  but  one  Force;  and  it  is  the  Infinite  Love  of  God 
which  —  in  itself  utterly  inaccessible  to  defining  thought,  and  beyond 
all  adequate  conception  —  comes  forth,  self-impelled,  and  creates  and 
fills  all  forms  of  being.  If,  then,  we  ask  why,  if  all  forces  are  one 
in  essence  and  in  origin,  they  are  so  diversified  in  their  appearance 
and  in  their  action,  we  find  the  answer  in  the  principle  that  this  One 
force  or  energy  is  always  determined  in  its  manifestation,  its  char 
acter,  its  aspect  and  effect,  by  the  inmost  nature  of  the  things  which  it 
form's  and  fills;  which  it  forms  for  that  purpose  and  fills  with  that 
effect. 

The  oldest  religious  philosophy  which  ever  existed  among  men, 
so  far  as  we  know,  had  its  home  in  India.  The  foundation-myth 
of  the  whole  was,  that,  when  Brahm  proposed  to  himself  to  create  the 
universe,  he  took  as  his  wife  Maya,  and  all  things  are  their  children. 
Brahm  is  the  name  of  the  absolute  and  infinite  Being,  from  whom 


WHAT   IS   MATTER?  19 

Then,  What  and  Where  is  the  external  world  we 
now  live  in?  It  is  what  the  mind  makes  it  and 
where  the  mind  places  it,  acting  on  impressions 
made  upon  the  mind  through  the  senses  by  material 
substance. 

And  What  and  Where  is  the  external  world  of 
the  life  after  death?  It  is  what  the  mind  makes  it 
and  where  the  mind  places  it,  acting  on  impressions 
made  upon  the  mind  through  the  senses  by  spiritual 
substance. 

And  what   are  material   substance  and  spiritual 


all  being  proceeds.  Maya  means  "appearance."  This,  at  least, 
from  all  I  have  been  able  to  learn  of  it,  was  its  primary  meaning. 
This  name  is  sometimes  translated  "illusion";  and  if  this  be  its 
true  meaning,  it  -would  follow  that  the  falsity  of  a  pure  idealism 
existed  even  then.  But  if,  or  while,  the  word  meant  Appearance, 
we  may  believe  that  they  thought  that  all  existing  things  received 
their  being  from  the  Infinite,  and  their  form  and  manner  of  being 
from  Appearance.  Then,  they  who,  after  the  fashion  of  that  age, 
expressed  their  philosophical  theory  by  that  myth,  held  that  what 
ever  we  see  or  hear  or  feel  or  taste  or  touch  is  but  the  effect,  mani 
festation,  and  appearance  of  that  of  which  we  can  know  nothing 
else  from  our  sensations,  or  from  sensuous  thought  concerning  our 
sensations,  than  this  Appearance ;  arid  the  outer  world  is  made  to 
bear  this  appearance  to  our  senses,  and  to  our  minds  through  our 
senses,  that  we  may  thus  have  a  body,  a  home,  and  a  world.  This 
we  believe ;  and  also  that  the  need  of  these  will  go  with  us  when  we 
leave  this  world,  and  will  be  supplied  as  it  is  now.  And  all  ex 
ternal  things  will  be  seen  and  known  in  Space  and  Time ;  but  Space 
and  Time  so  modified  and  changed,  and  with  them  all  external 
things,  as  our  new  condition  will  then  require. 


20  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

substance?  Two  forms  or  modes  of  the  one  sub 
stance  which  flows  forth  from  its  Divine  origin,  and 
takes  one  or  the  other  of  these  forms,  to  provide  for 
man  a  body  and  a  world,  first  in  this  beginning  of 
life,  and  then  in  the  life  which  follows  this. 

As  God  is  the  beginning  of  all  being,  so  the 
knowledge  of  God  is  the  beginning  of  all  knowledge 
concerning  things  which  belong  to  man  as  immortal. 
Let  us  now  inquire  into  the  origin  and  nature  of 
man's  belief  of  God,  and  the  manner  in  which  and 
the  purpose  for  which  this  belief  is  given  to  us. 

I.    OF   THE    BELIEF   IN   GOD. 

It  has  been  often  said  that  a  belief  in  God,  of 
some  kind  or  measure,  belongs  to  human  nature, 
and  is  inevitable  and  universal.  If  any  tribes  are 
found  so  utterly  savage  that  they  seem  to  have  no 
religion  whatever,  it  is  said  that  a  more  thorough 
knowledge  or  a  more  careful  inquiry  would  detect 
some  notion  of  a  governing  God,  although  it  might 
be  dim  and  clouded.  .And  if  men  of  ability  and  cul 
ture  deduce  their  unbelief  from  what  they  consider 
logical  reasoning  and  declare  it  unreservedly,  it  is 
then  said  that  they  are  mistaken  as  to  their  own 
opinions,  and  that  within  their  ratiocinative  denial 


THE   BELIEF   IN   GOD.  21 

lies  an  unconscious  belief,  because  the  heart  refuses 
to  listen  to  argument  on  this  point.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  this  be  quite  so. 

There  seem  to  be  some  savages  so  wholly  brutified 
that  no  spark  of  religion,  even  in  the  perverted  form 
of  superstition,  can  be  detected  by  the  sharpest 
scrutiny. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  have  been  in  all  ages, 
and  certainly  are  in  this,  men  distinguished  for  intel 
lectual  power  and  cultivation,  who  not  only  assert, 
but  manifest,  in  the  whole  course  of  their  thought 
and  the  whole  structure  of  their  opinions,  absence 
of  all  belief  in  a  God.  This  absence  must  be  ad 
mitted  as  to  them,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  say 
that  this  belief  is  so  necessary  a  part  of  human 
thought  that  no  evidence  can  prove  its  absence. 
We  may  at  least  conclude  that  if  a  belief  in  the 
existence  of  a  God  cannot  be  wholly  extirpated 
from  a  human  mind,  it  may  be  to  the  last  degree 
dim  and  feeble  in  such  savages  on  the  one  hand,  and 
in  such  men  of  high  culture  on  the  other. 

How  is  this  to  be  accounted  for?  Here  are  two 
classes  of  men  standing  at  the  opposite  extremes  of 
intellectual  ability,  natural  or  acquired;  and  they 
agree  in  this  most  exceptional  condition  of  mind,  — 
a  condition  so  exceptional  that  many  doubt  whether 
it  can  exist,  and  would  not  admit  its  existence  with 
out  decisive  evidence. 


THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

If  the  class  of  nearly  brutal  savages  stood  alone, 
there  would  be  no  difficulty.  It  would  be  said  only 
that  such  an  instance  proved  that  something  more 
than  mere  human  nature  was  necessary  to*this  be 
lief;  or,  in  other  words,  that  it  was  possible  for 
beings  to  exist  who  were  no  higher  than  animals  in 
this  respect,  but  in  others  lifted  so  distinctly  above 
animals  that  the  name  of  man  could  not  be  refused 
to  them. 

But  how  is  it  when  we  find  these  savages  stand 
in  this  respect  on  a  common  ground  with  some  who 
are  commonly  ranked  among  the  ablest  thinkers 
that  have  lived?  What  is  the  connecting  link  be 
tween  them  ?  Or  if  we  go  farther,  and  say  that  we 
find  such  instances  not  only  at  these  extremes  of 
intellect,  but  that  all  the  way  from  the  bottom  to 
the  summit  there  may  be  found  some  —  a  very  few, 
but  still  some  —  of  every  grade  of  power  and  culture, 
who  stand  in  this  exceptional  condition  of  mind,  the 
question  then  takes  this  form :  what  is  the  connect 
ing  link  which  gathers  into  this  class  of  persons 
who  deny  or  do  not  know  that  there  is  a  God,  men 
who  in  all  other  respects  are  so  entirely  apart,  and 
so  far  apart  ? 

The  answer  we  would  give  requires  some  analysis 
of  the  human  mind  and  character. 


THE  NATURAL  INTELLECTUAL  FACULTIES.   23 


n.  OF  THE  NATURAL  INTELLECTUAL  FACULTIES. 

We  often  say  that  man  has  a  body  and  a  soul, 
and  only  these ;  and  whatever  belongs  to  him  as  a 
part  of  his  selfhood  belongs  either  to  his  body  or 
to  his  soul.  If  we  accept  this  as  an  accurate  and 
exhaustive  division  of  the  elements  of  human  nature, 
let  us  look  a  little  at  each  of  them. 

Man's  body  makes  it  possible  for  him  to  live  on 
earth.  Not  only  so,  but  his  material  body  is  exqui 
sitely  adapted  to  this  material  earth.  The  indefi 
nitely  various  bodies  of  all  animals  are  adapted  to 
the  earth,  so  far  at  least  that  it  provides  for  them  a 
home,  where  the  individual  existence  may  be  sup 
ported  and  preserved,  the  race  propagated,  and  some 
degree  of  comfort  or  pleasure  .be  enjoyed.  But  ani 
mals  differ  among  themselves  exceedingly  on  this 
point.  Some  get  vastly  more  out  of  the  earth  than 
others.  Some  are  adapted  to  the  earth  far  more 
completely  than  others,  so  that  they  can  utilize  it  to 
a  far  greater  extent.  On  this  point,  as  on  most 
others,  man  far  exceeds  all  other  animals.  Not, 
however,  because  his  body  is  so  much  better  adapted 
to  the  earth  than  theirs,  but  because  he  has  also 
mental  faculties  additional  to  theirs ;  or,  if  the  same 
in  character  as  theirs,  of  far  greater  strength,  which 


24  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

are  exquisitely  adapted  to  bring  the  general  adapta* 
tion  of  the  body  to  the  earth  into  the  fullest  devel 
opment,  the  greatest  activity,  and  the  most  important 
results. 

Thus  man  alone  can  make  and  use  tools  or  instru 
ments.  By  these  he  asserts  a  superiority  over  all 
animals,  and  a  far  greater  capacity  than  theirs  for 
making  use  of  the  earth.  But  beyond  this,  indefi 
nitely  beyond  this,  he  has  faculties  perfectly  adapted: 
to  observation  of  the  earth,  to  an  investigation  into 
all  its  forms  and  forces,  its  laws  and  their  results 
and  manifestations.  Of  this  nothing  is  within  the 
reach  of  animals.  But  man  possesses  powers  of  this 
kind,  of  which  we  may  not  say  there  is  no  limit  to 
them  or  to  their  work,  but  may  say  that,  far  as  we 
have  advanced  in  this  direction,  every  step  forward 
has  revealed  new  possibilities,  and  given  new  cause 
for  effort  and  for  hope. 

It  is  by  the  cultivation  of  these  faculties  that  all 
natural  science  has  reached  its  present  stage  of 
growth.  Among  them  may  be  ranked  even  the 
mathematical  faculty.  This,  in  theory  and  in  some 
of  its  working,  seems  lifted  above  the  earth.  It 
deals  with  abstract  quantities  and  relations,  which 
exist  only  for  the  imagination.  But  the  laws  which 
it  investigates  are  only  the  inner  laws  of  mate 
rial  things.  When  the  mathematician  has  pushed 


THE    NATURAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES.        25 

his  calculus  to  the  farthest  result  he  can  now  reach, 
and  has  learned  all  it  can  tell  him  of  the  most  tran 
scendental  curves  and  motions,  the  astronomer  takes 
these  results  and  applies  them  to  the  sky,  sure  that 
the  deductions  of  pure  reason  are  one  with  the  laws 
of  the  universe.  Why  are  these  truths  within  these 
laws  as  their  guides  and  masters  ?  Only  by  antici 
pating  what  might  perhaps  be  better  said  at  a  later 
period,  can  we  answer  this  question :  they  are  there 
because  the  reason  which  placed  them  there  and 
works  within  them  is  one  with  the  reason  in  man 
which  finds  them  there. 

Nor  is  it  astronomy  alone  which  seeks  the  aid  of 
mathematics.  Chemistry,  botany,  and  even  geology, 
are  all  invoking  it.  And  the  science  which  bears 
the  name  of  applied  mathematics  brings  down  the 
best  work  of  the  pure  reason  to  render  service  to 
man  in  carrying  on  the  business  of  life  and  procuring 
its  enjoyments. 

How  much  farther  man  may  go  in  these  directions 
none  may  say.  It  is  only  certain  that  we  have  not 
reached  the  end,  nor  yet  come  within  sight  of  the 
end.  The  impossibilities  of  a  few  generations  ago 
are  our  actualities.  Their  dreams  belong  to  our 
waking  life ;  and,  in  some  things  now  familiar  to  our 
use,  we  have  gone  beyond  even  the  dreams  of  former 
generations.  All  this  excites,  and  perhaps  it  justifies, 


26  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

a  boundless  hope  for  the  future :  the  hope  of  a  future 
in  which  the  material  universe,  and  all  there  is  in  it 
of  substance,  or  force,  or  activity,  will  in  some  way 
minister  to  the  wants  and  promote  the  happiness  of 
man. 

But  of  all  these  faculties,  even  in  their  widest 
possible  or  conceivable  development,  one  thing  re 
mains  to  be  said. 

None  of  them,  no  one  of  them  nor  the  whole 
together,  belong  to  man  as  an  immortal  being,  or 
necessarily  imply,  or  lead  the  thought  to,  immor 
tality.  And  if  they  alone  belonged  to  the  human 
mind,  and  constituted  the  whole  of  its  intellectual 
power  or  wealth,  they  could  never  lead  the  thoughts 
towards  any  life  other  than  life  on  this  earth. 

We  have  indeed  at  the  present  time  what  may  be 
regarded  as  positive  proof,  that  these  faculties,  al 
though  exerted  with  the  utmost  vigor  and  reaching 
the  highest  attainable  success,  have,  of  themselves, 
no  power  and  no  tendency  to  look  beyond  this 
world.  We  have  this  proof  in  the  fact  that  so 
many  persons  who  stand  in  the  very  first  class  of 
scientists  at  this  day  have  but  little  scruple  —  in 
some  instances,  none  whatever  —  in  letting  it  be 
understood  that  they  consider  the  things  of  another 
world,  or  the  fact  of  another  world,  as  not  within 
the  scope  of  human  knowledge  or  rational  belief. 


THE    NATURAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES.        27 

Some  evidence  to  the  same  effect  may  be  found 
in  the  fact,  that  other  eminent  scientists,  who  de 
clare  their  belief  in  God  and  in  religion,  separate 
this  belief  entirely  from  scientific  inquiry  or  thought ; 
and  some  —  as  Faraday,  for  example  — 'are  of  opinion 
that  religious  faith  is  to  be  protected  and  preserved 
only  by  an  entire  severance  from  those  other  topics 
or  processes  of  thought  and  knowledge. 

The  sell-contentment  of  these  human  faculties  in 
their  own  work  has  led  to  a  conclusion  which  seems 
to  be  now  quite  widely  held,  —  that  the  difference 
between  man  and  the  lower  animals  is  a  difference 
of  degree  and  not  of  kind;  inasmuch  as  we  can  see 
in  the  animal  kingdom  the  beginnings  of  all  those 
faculties  which  grow  into  greater  strength  and  do 
far  greater  work  in  man.  This  is  true  in  respect  to 
all  the  faculties  adapted  only  to  utilize  the  earth  for 
practical  or  scientific  purposes.  But  there  is  still  a 
decisive  difference  between  man  and  animals,  even 
in  respect  to  these  faculties.  Every  animal  is  born 
into  possession  of  the  faculties  his  parents  had,  and 
can  never  enlarge  them.  He  is  not  educated  into 
the  use  of  his  faculties ;  nor  does  he  inherit  any 
advance  in  the  use,  of  them  if  his  parents  made  any. 
In  fact  they  made  and  could  make  no  advance. 
The  instances  known  of  breeds  of  domestic  animals 
acquiring  and  transmitting  new  powers  or  new 


28  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

methods  of  using  common  powers,  are,  in  the  first 
place,  too  slight  to  form  a  noticeable  exception  to 
the  rule.  And  in  the  next  place,  whatever  may  be 
supposed  by  some  theorists,  we  have  no  evidence  that 
even  those  improvements  are  ever  effected  except 
among  domestic  animals,  or  are  ever  the  results  of 
mere  animal  effort  unaided  by  the  care  and  training 
of  men.  And  even  if  we  admit  a  gradual  enlarge 
ment  and  gain  in  successive  generations  of  animals, 
produced  by  "  the  struggle  for  life,"  or  "  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,"  or  other  causes,  one  thing  remains 
true  and  certain.  It  is,  that  animals  cannot  volun 
tarily  and  consciously,  and  by  efforts  made  for  that 
purpose,  transmit  all  that  one  generation  has  learned 
to  the  next,  and  so  by  accumulation  through  ages 
add  to  the  constantly  growing  mass  of  knowledge 
of  the  external  universe  and  to  their  ability  to  make 
use  of  this  universe.  And  so  we  reach  the  conclu 
sion,  that  man  has  all  the  faculties  to  utilize  the 
earth  which  animals  have,  and  yet  other  faculties 
which  make  his  power  to  utilize  the  earth  vastly 
greater  than  that  which  animals  possess. 

HI.     OF    THE    SPIRITUAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES. 

All  the  faculties  we  have  spoken  of  above  are  nat 
ural  to  man.    We  use  this  phrase  because  by  Nature 


THE    SPIRITUAL    INTELLECTUAL    FACULTIES.       29 

—  from  nascor,  to  be  born  —  we  mean  the  world 
into  which  man  is  born  and  all  that  belongs  to  it, 
and  all  those  faculties  of  his  mind  which  enable  him 
to  study  and  comprehend  the  external  universe, 
and  enlarge  indefinitely  his  scientific  knowledge 
thereof,  and  make  use  of  its  substances,  its  forces 
and  its  laws,  for  his  own  benefit.  We  call  these 
faculties,  therefore,  his  natural  faculties.  It  is  a  con 
venient  phrase ;  and,  if  the  definition  we  have  given 
be  remembered,  we  shall  not  be  misunderstood 
when  we  make  use  of  it. 

The  important  fact  which  we  would  now  remem 
ber  is,  that  the  natural  faculties  of  man  do  not  lead 
him  to  any  knowledge  or  belief  of  God  or  of  another 
life ;  and  do  not,  of  themselves,  cause  or  suggest 
any  thought  of  that  kind.  They  are  adapted  to 
this  earth  in  the  most  perfect  manner.  This  is  their 
end  and  purpose ;  and  to  this  end  and  purpose  they 
are  entirely  adequate.  And  to  this  end  and  purpose 
they  are  confined  and  limited,  in  their  capacity  and 
in  their  action.  Of  themselves  and  in  their  own 
activity,  they  stop  short  of  any  thought  or  any 
knowledge  or  belief,  other  than  belong  to  this  world 
and  the  things  of  this  life. 

And  yet  it  is  certain  that  all  or  very  nearly 
all  men  have  a  belief,  or  thoughts,  referring  in 
some  form  or  measure  to  another  life.  How  is  this 


30  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

to  be  accounted  for  ?  By  the  fact  that  man  has,  in 
addition  to  his  natural  faculties,  another  class  of 
faculties.  These  differ  so  entirely  from  the  natural 
faculties,  that  they  constitute  between  man  who  pos 
sesses  them,  and  animals  who  do  not  possess  them 
in  the  slightest  measure,  a  difference  which  is  not  a 
difference  of  degree,  but  radically  and  essentially  a 
difference  of  kind.  This  difference  constitutes  in 
deed  the  essential  difference  between  man  and  the 
lower  animals.  Only  by  considering  it,  only  by 
learning  as  well  as  we  may  what  this  difference  is, 
and  whence  it  arises,  and  what  is  its  effect,  can  we 
arrive  at  just  results  concerning  human  nature. 

It  must  be  very  difficult  to  many  to  see  that  this 
is  so ;  and  to  some  it  must  be  impossible.  The  rea 
son  is,  that  it  can  be  seen  to  be  true  only  by  an 
exercise  of  these  higher  faculties,  because  they  only 
can  take  cognizance  of  this  matter.  And  this  again 
is  a  hard  saying.  Perhaps  it  may  be  made  easier  by 
some  considerations  which  may  lead  us  to  see  why 
it  is  that  man  possesses  faculties  of  these  two  classes, 
distinguished  from  each  other  in  this  way. 

I  must,  in  the  first  place,  assume  that  there  is  a 
God ;  and  this  I  do  without  the  slightest  attempt,  at 
this  time,  to  prove  His  existence,  and  still  remem 
bering  that  the  natural  faculties  cannot  recognize 
this  truth. 


THE    SPIRITUAL   INTELLECTUAL    FACULTIES.      31 

In  the  idea  of  God,  and  by  this  I  mean  in  every 
actual  idea  of  God,  must  be  included  the  idea  that 
He  in  some  way  made  the  universe  and  man,  and 
governs  both.  At  all  events,  I  assume  this;  and 
admit  at  once  that  if  this  be  not  admitted  I  have  no 
basis  whatever  for  the  argument  I  now  attempt  to 
present. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  from  the  fact  that 
God  made  man,  that  man  is  immortal.  But  if  it  be 
admitted  that  God  made  man  and  the  universe,  and 
placed  man  here  and  made  man  such  as  he  is,  there 
are  reasons  enough  derivable  from  man's  relations  to 
the  universe,  and  from  his  mental,  moral,  and  phys 
ical  nature,  for  believing  that  man  is  immortal.  But 
these  reasons  can  have  no  force  or  effect  unless  they 
are  seen  and  weighed  by  the  spiritual  faculties.  It 
is  my  present  purpose  to  show  the  reasonableness 
of  believing  the  existence  of  these  faculties ;  and  I 
will  not  attempt  to  show  this  by  an  inference  from 
the  work  they  do,  but  again  assume  man's  immor 
tality. 

I  stand  then  here :  I  assume  that  God  made  man, 
and  made  him  to  be  immortal.  This  means  that 
God  made  the  universe  as  a  home  for  man,  not  only 
in  the  beginning  of  his  being,  but  made  him  such, 
that,  after  he  had  ceased  to  live  in  this  world 
or  state  or  manner,  he  should  live  in  another 


THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

world  or  state   or  manner,   and  should   live  there 
always. 

And  now  my  argument  is,  that,  if  God  made  man 
to  live  first  in  this  world,  he  would  give  him  facul 
ties  adequate  to  this  world  and  suited  to  make  the 
most  of  it.  And  if  God  made  man  to  live  another 
life  after  this  has  ceased,  he  would  make  this  life 
such,  in  its  relation  to  the  other,  that  it  might  be 
preparatory  for  the  other,  or  helpful  to  man  consid 
ered  as  one  who  would  live  after  he  ceased  to  live 
here ;  —  and  would  give  him  faculties  by  which  he 
would  make  this  use  of  this  life. 

We  know  that  man  has  faculties,  many  and  vari 
ous  faculties,  perfectly  adapted  to  utilize  this  earth 
in  every  way  that  begins  and  ends  upon  this  earth. 
So  much  no  one  ever  doubted.  But  to  him  who  be 
lieves  that  man  only  begins  to  live  here,  and  that 
God  places  him  here  so  to  begin  life,  and  gives  him 

these  faculties  adapted  to  this  beginning  of  life, 

to  him  it  will  seem  most  reasonable  to  believe  that 
God  made  him  to  begin  life  here,  with  a  view  to  his 
living  hereafter,  and  with  the  purpose  that  by  living 
here  he  might  live  more  happily  hereafter ;  and  that 
if  God  gave  man  faculties  admirably  adapted  to 
utilize  this  life  in  itself,  so  he  would  give  him 
faculties  by  which  while  living  here  he  could  utilize 
this  life  for  another  life. 


THE    SPIRITUAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES.      33 

More  than  this.  If  life  is  limited  here,  and  the 
life  hereafter  is  without  limit,  it  must  be  infinitely 
more  reasonable  to  believe  that  God  would  give  man 
faculties  suited  to  prepare  him  by  a  due  exercise 
thereof  for  that  unending  life,  than  that  he  would 
give  him  faculties  suited  to  live  comfortably  here. 

And  because  that  life  cannot  be  precisely  the  same 
with  this,  but  may  be  similar,  and,  if  this  life  is  in 
tended  to  be  preparatory  for  that  and  as  an  appren 
ticeship  or  school  for  that,  must  be  believed  to  be 
in  important  respects  similar ;  so  it  is  reasonable  to 
believe  that  the  faculties  adapted  to  utilize  this  life 
as  a  preparation  for  the  other  life  are  not  the  same, 
but  are  in  important  respects  similar  to  the  faculties 
which  are  adapted  to  this  life  in  and  by  itself. 

And  one  point  of  similarity  between  these  two 
classes  of  faculties  may  reasonably  be  believed  to 
be  this  :  as  the  faculties  possessed  by  man,  to  utilize 
this  world  for  all  its  possible  advantage  to  him  while 
living  here,  do  not  benefit  him  excepting  in  propor 
tion  as  he  makes  a  suitable  use  and  exercise  of  them ; 
so  the  faculties  possessed  by  him  that  while  living 
here  he  may  prepare  himself  for  greater  happiness 
hereafter,  do  not  benefit  him  in  that  respect  except 
ing  in  proportion  as  he  makes  a  suitable  use  and 
exercise  of  them. 

It  is  by  these  higher  faculties  that  man  thinks  of 
3 


34  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

another  life,  and  of  a  God  who  is  the  creator,  gov 
ernor,  and  preserver  of  all  things.  It  is  by  these 
faculties  that  man  thinks  of  the  things  of  religion ; 
that  he  thinks  spiritual  thoughts.  And  we  give  to 
these  faculties  the  name  of  spiritual  faculties. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  natural  faculties  and 
spiritual  faculties  as  entirely  different  and  dis 
tinct.  It  might  be  more  satisfactory  to  some 
minds,  if  we  said  only  that  they  worked  in 
entirely  different  ways,  on  entirely  different  planes, 
and  with  entirely  different  results.  Perception, 
comparison,  imagination,  reason,  analysis  and  syn 
thesis,  are  all  employed  as  natural  faculties;  and 
they  are  all  employed  as  spiritual  faculties.  We 
know  so  little  yet  of  the  forces  of  the  external  uni 
verse  and  the  way  they  run  into  one  another  and 
manifest  a  unity  in  the  midst  of  diversity ;  and  so 
much  less  of  the  spiritual  faculties  and  their  true 
relation  to  the  natural  faculties,  that  we  are  not  pre 
pared  to  see  distinctly  how  far  they  are  separate  and 
distinct,  in  themselves,  or  how  far  they  are  the 
same,  differing  only  in  the  modes  of  their  activity ; 
or  differing  as  in  degree  or  rank,  the  one  set  being 
lower  and  the  other  higher,  or  the  one  set  external 
and  the  other  internal.  Without  pausing  now  on 
this  point,  the  difference  between  them  is  abun 
dantly  sufficient  to  prevent  our  being  misunderstood 


THE    SPIRITUAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES.      35 

when  we  speak  of  the  faculties  last  described  as 
spiritual  faculties. 

The  radical  difference  between  them  is  this.  By 
the  natural  faculties,  man  may  investigate  and 
master  the  external  universe.  But  they  go  no 
further ;  not  even  in  thought,  or  desire,  or  hope. 
They  would  be  and  do  just  what  they  are  and  do  ; 
and  we  can  suppose  that  they  might  have  gained 
for  man  all  the  treasures  they  have  won ;  and  that 
they  might  gain  for  him  all  that  ever  shall  be  won 
in  the  same  direction  if  the  wildest  dreams  of 
scientific  enthusiasm  become  realities,  —  whether 
man  lives  after  death,  or  is  extinguished  when  he 
dies.  This  could  make  no  difference  to  them,  none 
to  their  work  or  its  results.  They  would  be  and  do 
all  they  now  are  and  do,  if  this  external  universe, 
born  of  itself,  had  come  into  being  by  its  own  ener 
gies,  and  was  in  its  complex  God  and  the  only  God. 

The  utter  unreasonableness,  the  fearful  absurdity 
of  such  a  supposition  can  be  apparent  to,  can  be 
even  suggested  by,  only  some  exercise  of  the  spir 
itual  faculties.  For  it  is  to  them  and  to  them  only 
that  we  owe  whatever  we  have  of  thought  or  hope 
or  belief  of  an  immortal  life,  and  of  a  personal 
Father  of  us  and  all  things  whom  we  may  obey 
and  trust  and  love.  We  should  not  have  the  pos 
sibility  of  any  thoughts  like  these  had  we  no  spir- 


36  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

itual  faculties.  We  cannot  have  the  actuality  of 
any  such  thought  or  faith,  if  these  faculties  are  not 
awakened  and  exercised. 

In  another  respect  these  two  classes  of  faculties 
are  perfectly  alike.  While  both  are  necessary 
elements  of  human  nature  and  must  belong  to  man 
because  he  is  man,  they  may,  both  or  either,  exist 
only  potentially,  and  not  actively.  Or  they  may 
have  any  degree  of  activity;  the  natural  faculties 
from  the  least  and  lowest  found  in  the  most  savage 

& 

life,  to  the  greatest  height  they  have  yet  ascended 
or  ever  may  ascend,  in  the  most  powerful  and  cul 
tivated  intellects;  the  spiritual  faculties  from  the 
total  or  almost  total  absence  of  any  spiritual  thought, 
through  all  degrees  of  dimness  or  obscurity  or  clear 
ness  and  strength  of  such  thought,  to  the  most 
intense  religious  conviction.  So,  too,  they  may, 
both  or  either,  be  misguided  and  mistaken.  The 
brutal  life  of  the  savage,  who  makes  little  or  no  use 
of  his  natural  faculties,  finds  its  exact  correlative  in 
the  ignorance  or  unbelief  of  those  who  make  no  use 
of  their  spiritual  faculties,  whatever  they  may  do 
with  their  natural  faculties.  The  wild  and  foolish 
and  sometimes  mischievous  theories  and  supposi 
tions  which  have  prevailed  as  to  external  things,  in 
different  places  and  .iges,  find  their  exact  correlative 
in  the  fantastic  and  irrational  and  sometimes  most 


THE    SPIRITUAL    INTELLECTUAL    FACULTIES.      37 

mischievous  theories  and  suppositions  which  have 
prevailed  as  to  matters  of  religion. 

But,  while  these  two  classes  of  faculties  are  alike 
in  these  respects,  they  manifest  their  distinction 
from  each  other  by  their  perfect  independence  of 
each  other.  There  is  no  form  and  no  degree  of 
disregard  or  even  contempt  or  dislike  of  the  natural 
faculties  and  their  exercise,  which  may  not  coexist 
with  some  form  of  sincere  and  profound  religious 
faith.  Asceticism  proved  this  ;  and  perhaps  all  ten 
dency  to  asceticism  is  a  tendency  in  this  direction. 
On  the  other  hand,  no  kind  and  no  degree  of  vigor, 
activity,  and  success  of  the  natural  faculties  implies, 
or  of  itself  indicates,  any  action  of  or  any  vitality  in 
the  spiritual  faculties. 

This  law  is  at  once  illustrated  by,  and  gives  us 
an  explanation  of,  the  fact  to  which  reference  was 
made  at  the  beginning  of  this  essay;  the  fact, 
namely,  that  to-day  utter  unbelief  of  religion  is  to 
be  found  mainly  in  those  two  classes  of  human 
beings  who  stand,  as  to  the  exercise  of  the  natural 
faculties,  at  the  opposite  poles  of  human  nature ; 
surrounded  equally  in  both  cases,  as  to  the  spiritual 
faculties,  with  arctic  barrenness,  silence  and  death. 
At  the  one  extreme  stands  the  lowest  savage ; 
utterly  wanting  in  spiritual  thought  and  belief,  be 
cause,  while  his  natural  faculties  are  only  so  far 


THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

brought  into  play  as  to  preserve  his  life  and  per 
petuate  his  race,  his  spiritual  faculties  are,  if  pos 
sible,  still  less  active.  At  the  other  extreme  stands 
the  eminent  scientist,  who,  as  to  his  spiritual  facul 
ties,  and  all  that  they  would  teach,  is  just  where  the 
savage  is;  because  his  natural  faculties  are  exer 
cised  with  an  intensity,  and  the  exercise  itself  and 
its  results  are  loved  with  a  passionate  and  exclusive 
devotion,  which  leaves  nothing  of  interest,  nothing 
of  power,  nothing  of  life,  to  his  spiritual  faculties. 
And  he  knows  nothing  and  believes  nothing  of 
what  they  would  tell  him.  In  one  half  of  his  na 
ture,  how  far  beyond  the  savage !  in  the  other  half, 
how  entirely  the  same ! 

While  writing  this,  I  met  with  a  paper  in  a  recent 
English  periodical,  by  Professor  Huxley.  I  need 
not  say  that  this  gentleman  stands  high  in  the  high 
est  class  of  scientific  men.  In  this  paper  he  is  re 
viewing  a  book  in  which  the  ends  of  creation  and 
the  origin  of  life,  and  other  topics  of  like  kind,  are 
much  considered.  Mr.  Huxley,  after  noticing  the 
author's  views  and  some  of  an  opposite  kind,  comes 
to  the  conclusion  that  all  such  inquiries  are  vain  and 
fruitless.  He  ends  thus  :  «  Why  trouble  one's  self 
about  matters  which  are  out  of  reach,  when  tho 
working  of  the  mechanism  itself,  which  is  of  infinite 
practical  importance,  affords  scope  for  all  our  ener- 


THE    SPIRITUAL    INTELLECTUAL    FACULTIES.      39 

gies."  In  this  short  sentence  four  things  are  worthy 
of  notice.  The  first  is',  that  he  regards  all  truth  of 
the  kind  which  the  author  he  is  reviewing  seeks  — 
that  is,  all  spiritual  truth  —  as  "  out  of  our  reach." 
The  second,  that  he  regards  the  universe  as  "  a 
mechanism."  The  third,  that  the  working  of  this 
mechanism  considered  by  itself  is  a  topic  "  of  infinite 
importance."  The  fourth,  that  the  study  of  it,  its 
laws,  forces,  aspects  and  relations  as  a  mechanism, 
''  offers  scope  for  all  our  energies." 

And,  on  his  own  ground,  he  is  perfectly  right  on 
all  these  points.  He  has  used  the  natural  faculties 
only, — used  them  with  earnestness  and  eminent  suc 
cess,  but  used  only  them.  He  knows  no  other,  and 
believes  in  no  other.  And  it  is  entirely  true  that 
all  the  topics  which  he  thus  contemns  are  "  beyond 
the  reach  of  those  faculties ; "  that,  so  far  as  they 
can  see  or  teach,  the  universe  is  "a  mechanism;" 
that  the  investigation  of  it  as  such  is  the  only  work 
which  those  faculties  can  recognize,  and  to  them  it 
is  "  infinitely  important ;  "  and  it  "  affords  scope  for 
all  their  energies,"  and  is  their  proper  object,  and 
suffices  and  ever  will  suffice  to  employ  and  to  ex 
haust  all  their  strength. 

Speak  to  one  who  has  devoted  his  life  to  the  em 
ployment  and  invigoration  of  these  lower  faculties, 
while  the  higher  slept  in  utter  inaction  and  uncon- 


40  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

sciousness,  —  speak  to  him,  in  any  words  which  man 
can  use,  of  God,  and  another  life  which  will  not  end, 
and  of  faculties  which  are  given  us  that  we  may 
learn  truth  concerning  these  spiritual  things,  and 
utilize  this  truth  for  advantages  which  are  related  to 
all  that  the  lower  faculties  can  give  as  eternity  to 
time,  and  how  is  it  possible  that  he  should  under 
stand  you  any  more  than  if  you  spoke  in  a  language 
he  did  not  know  ? 

As  we  can  have  no  idea  whatever  of  any  religious 
truth  except  by  the  exercise  of  these  higher  spirit 
ual  faculties,  so  the  religious  ideas  we  have  will 
be  distinct  or  dim,  strong  or  weak,  constant  and 
habitual,  or  intermitting  and  infrequent,  precisely  as 
these  faculties  act  distinctly  or  obscurely,  vigorously 
or  feebly,  continually  or  with  longer  or  shorter  in 
tervals  of  slumber.  So,  too,  these  ideas  will  be  accu 
rate  or  mistaken  accordingly  as  these  faculties  are 
wisely  or  unwisely  exercised. 

These  faculties  are  given  us  that  we  may  be  pre 
pared  by  a  life  in  this  world  for  life  in  another  world. 
The  lower,  natural  faculties  relate  to  this  world  only. 
It  is  therefore  obvious  that  an  undue  love  of  this 
world,  or  worldliness  (and  so  it  should  be  called 
whatever  form  it  takes),  must  tend  to  give  undue 
development  and  strength  to  the  natural  faculties, 
and  in  the  same  degree  to  suppress  the  spiritual  fac- 


THE    SPIRITUAL   INTELLECTUAL   FACULTIES.      41 

ulties.  And  most  true  it  is  that  there  are  none  in 
whom  this  woiidliness  does  not  exert  some  influ 
ence  adverse  to  that  of  the  spiritual  faculties ;  and 
few  in  whom  this  adverse  influence  is  not  powerful ; 
while  in  many  persons  it  is  so  strong  and  so  constant, 
that  if  it  does  not  wholly  prevent  any  exercise  of 
the  spiritual  faculties,  —  that  is,  if  it  does  not  wholly 
prevent  any  thought  or  belief  of  God  or  immortality, 
—  it  makes  such  thoughts  poor,  feeble,  unfrequent, 
and  inoperative. 

It  may  be  what  would  be  called  the  cares  of 
this  world,  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  power,  or  fame ; 
or  it  may  be  only  the  labor  and  devotion  to  daily 
occupation  which  seem  necessary  for  comfortable 
subsistence ;  or  it  may  be  an  extreme  sensuous  en 
joyment  of  what  the  world  offers  to  the  senses  ;  or 
it  may  be  the  engrossing  love  of  external  knowledge 
or  science  for  its  own  sake  or  for  its  rewards ;  —  it 
may  be  either  or  any  of  these  causes,  which  confine 
our  thoughts  and  concentrate  our  interest  upon 
things  which  belong  to  this  world  only.  Then,  in 
the  same  measure,  the  faculties  we  possess  for  the 
sake  of  the  other  life  and  which  refer  to  that  or  to  a 
preparation  for  that,  are  torpid  and  powerless.  Let 
me  again  suppose  that  we  live  in  this  short  life 
that  we  may  prepare  in  it  for  another  life  of  indefi 
nite  length,  and  that  our  life  through  the  unending 


42  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE'  FINITE. 

hereafter  will  be  profoundly  affected  by  our  life  here 
and  by  every  part  of  it ;  then  let  us  cast  the  light  of 
these  truths  upon  the  course  of  belief,  affection,  and 
conduct  which  prevail  in  society,  and  what  must  be 
our  conclusion  ? 

IV.     OF   THE    NATURAL    AND    THE    SPIRITUAL   AFFEC- 
TIONAL   FACULTIES. 

The  same  distinction  which  exists  between  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual  faculties  considered  intel 
lectually,  exists  between  them  if  they  are  considered 
affectionally. 

The  man,  as  to  all  within  the  body,  consists  of 
will  and  understanding.  All  his  powers  and  all 
their  functions  may  be  referred  to  what  he  thinks, 
believes,  or  denies,  or  else  to  what  he  feels,  loves,  or 
hates.  Because  we  begin  our  existence  in  this 
world,  our  natural  intellectual  faculties  are  adapted 
to  this  world.  But  we  have  also  natural  affectional 
faculties;  and  these,  like  the  natural  intellectual 
faculties,  are  adapted  to  this  world,  and  to  all  its 
gifts,  its  requirements,  and  its  relations.  But  as  we 
live  in  this  world  to  prepare  for  another  world,  we 
have  not  only  spiritual  intellectual  faculties  by  means 
of  which  this  preparation  may  be  made,  but  also 
spiritual  affectional  faculties  to  co-operate  with  them, 
or  rather  to  lead,  in  this  work  of  preparation. 


THE  AFFECTIONAL  FACULTIES.         43 

We  have  seen  that  the  natural  intellectual  facul 
ties  may  have  any  measure  of  strength  or  culture,  or 
activity  or  success,  and  yet  remain  purely  natural, 
with  no  light  cast  upon  them  or  on  their  work  by 
the  spiritual  intellectual  faculties.  Precisely  so  the 
natural  affections  may  take  any  form  or  any  charac 
ter,  be  strong  or  weak,  be  good  or  bad,  and  either 
good  or  bad  in  any  degree,  and  yet  remain  only 
natural  affections,  with  no  life  in  them  from  spiritual 
affections. 

There  can  be  no  enjoyment  of  life  in  this  world, 
without  mutual  kindness.  This  emotion  all  good 
men  feel,  and  all  wise  men  cultivate.  So,  too,  the 
race  could  not  be  perpetuated  if  there  were  no  par 
ental  affection.  The  utter  feebleness  of  the  infant 
and  his  perfect  dependence  upon  his  parents  would 
make  the  continuance  of  his  life  impossible  without 
their  care ;  and  this  care  would  be  impossible  without 
parental  affection.  This  love  is  therefore  universal. 
If  it  ceased  to  exist  and  to  be  powerful  in  any  race, 
that  race  must  die  out. 

We  may  go  to  a  yet  higher  love,  —  that  which 
unites  husband  and  wife.  The  sexes  must  come 
together,  or  the  race  will  not  be  perpetuated.  This 
end  might  be  answered  without  choice,  constancy,  or 
permanence  in  this  relation.  But  these  add  infinitely 
to  the  comfort  and  enjoyment  of  life.  The  great 


44  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

majority  of  men  acknowledge  this  in  theory ;  and 
great  numbers  live  in  the  practice  of  it. 

Is  not  all  this  good  ?  Certainly.  But  that  is  not 
now  the  question.  It  is,  Are  these  affections  natural 
or  spiritual  ?  As  there  are  natural  intellectual  facul 
ties  and  spiritual  intellectual  faculties,  and  natural 
affections  and  spiritual  affections,  so  there  is  natural 
goodness  and  spiritual  goodness.  And  to  the  ques 
tion,  Is  not  all  this  good  ?  while  we  answer,  Certainly 
it  is,  we  may  then  ask  the  farther  question,  Is  it  nat 
ural  goodness  or  spiritual  goodness?  And  to  this 
question  we  must  apply  the  same  test  as  before. 
The  natural  affections  look  to  this  life  and  to  this 
alone.  The  spiritual  affections  look  to  God  and  to 
another  life.  The  natural  affections,  born  in  this 
world,  live  here  and  die  here.  Spiritual  affections, 
born  in  this  world,  rise  above  it,  and  never  die.  The 
natural  affections  belong  to  man  as  he  is  one  among 
the  animals;  and  the  beginnings  or  rudiments  of 
them,  as  of  the  natural  intellectual  qualities,  may  be 
found  in  his  brother  animals.  But  to  find  the  first 
trace  or  semblance  of  spiritual  affections  we  must 
go  above  animals  :  we  must  go  to  man ;  we  must  go 
to  that  in  man  which  makes  him  other  than  animals. 
We  must  go  to  man  as  an  immortal  being,  and  to 
that  part  of  his  nature  which  is  given  him  to  the 
end  that,  while  he  is  living  the  temporary  life  he 


THE  AFFECTIONAL  FACULTIES.         4«) 

shares  with  animals,  he  may  be  preparing  for  immor 
tal  life.  And  now  we  have  the  means  of  answering 
the  question,  What  is  this  goodness  ? 

If  it  be  only  as  above  described,  it  is  only  nat 
ural  goodness.  Later  in  this  work  it  will  be  my 
endeavor  to  show  that  these  two  classes  of  facul 
ties  —  natural  and  spiritual  —  stand  in  such  relation 
to  each  other,  that  the  highest  possible  culture  of 
the  natural  intellectual  faculties  prepares  them  to 
be  the  most  effectual  instruments  of  the  spiritual 
intellectual  faculties,  when  these  take  their  proper 
place  and  do  their  proper  work ;  for  then  they  will 
not  renounce  what  the  natural  intellectual  faculties 
have  gained,  but  will  find  in  all  of  it  inexhaustible 
illustration  and  indispensable  assistance.  Just  so, 
when  the  spiritual  affectional  faculties  command  the 
character,  they  will  not  renounce  natural  goodness, 
but  will  rejoicingly  adopt  all  of  it,  and  make  it  their 
own  form  and  expression,  and  fill  it  with  new  and  a 
far  more  vigorous  life. 

The  distinction  between  the  natural  and  the  spir 
itual  intellectual  faculties  is  much  more  clearly 
defined  and  more  easily  seen  than  that  between 
natural  and  spiritual  affections.  But  this  too  is  vis 
ible,  or  discoverable ;  for  we  have  the  unfailing  test 
of  a  reference  to  God  and  immortality  in  the  one 
class,  and  the  absence  of  such  reference  in  the 
other. 


46  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

There  is  an  immense  amount  of  good  in  the 
world :  of  mutual  kindness,  of  parental  affection,  of 
conjugal  love.  This  age,  certainly  in  this  country, 
is  characterized  by  an  active  and  general  and  effi 
cient  philanthropy.  There  seems  to  be  a  more  pro 
found  and  more  operative  belief  than  ever  before 
manifested  itself  so  widely,  that  it  is  an  important 
part  of  the  business  of  mankind  to  help  mankind. 
The  miseries  and  evils  prevailing  among  us  are 
searched  into,  their  causes  investigated,  and  earnest 
and  able  men  are  laboring  to  devise  and  to  apply 
the  best  preventives  or  remedies.  This  is  good,  and 
very  good.  But  the  question  still  remains,  what  is 
the  nature,  what  is  the  quality  of  this  goodness  ?  Is 
it  natural,  or  is  it  spiritual  ?  or,  in  other  words,  how 
far  is  its  purpose  limited  to  the  improvement  of 
human  life,  conduct,  and  condition  in  this  world,  and 
how  much  in  it  looks  upon  this  life  in  its  relation  to 
another  life  ? 

I  have  been  struck  with  a  fact  which  I  do  not 
find  noticed.  There  is  now  almost  no  form  of  vice, 
or  misconduct,  or  misery,  which  has  not  its  energetic 
assailants.  Associations  are  formed  to  overcome  it. 
The  poet,  orator,  and  essayist  are  all  invoked  against 
it,  and  answer  to  the  call.  But  I  have  not  been  able 
to  discover,  in  the  constitutions,  or  platforms,  or 
resolutions  of  these  societies,  in  poem,  speech,  or 


THE  AFFECTIONAL  FACULTIES.         47 

writing,  any  argument  for  these  reforms  grounded 
upon  the  necessity  of  preparing  by  a  life  in  this 
world  for  a  life  to  come  after  this  is  finished.  There 
may  be  some  such ;  but  there  cannot  be  many,  or  I 
think  I  should  have  noticed  them.  And  if  it  be  said 
that  some  of  these  reformers  are  religious  men,  and 
refrain  from  bringing  forward  the  religious  aspect  of 
the  case  from  an  apprehension  that  it  might  disturb 
united  action,  and  so  work  a  practical  mischief, — 
what  is  this -but  an  admission  that  the  active  and 
prevailing  principles  which  are  urging  on  these 
efforts  to  reform,  must,  in  the  present  condition  of 
human  thought  and  character,  be  kept  perfectly  free 
from  all  reference  to  another  life,  or  they  would  be 
obstructed  and  paralyzed  ?  Does  not  this  fact,  with 
whatever  qualification  any  may  wish  to  give  to  it, 
help  us  to  answer  the  question,  whether  this  good 
ness  is  spiritual  or  natural? 

But,  if  we  look  at  the  question  on  broader  grounds, 
is  there  not  a  strong  tendency  in  these  days  to 
regard  conduct  independently  of  motive,  or  at  least 
so  much  of  motive  as  refers  to  religious  faith. 

"For  creeds  and  forms  let  graceless  bigots  fight; 
He  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  the  right." 

This  is  entirely  true,  if  life  is  here  understood  as 
comprehending  all  life,  —  the  life  of  thought,  belief, 


48  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

and  motive  as  well  as  of  act,  —  and  if  right  is  rightly 
understood.  But  is  it  not  plain  that  these  words 
are  not,  generally,  so  used  ?  It  is  not  meant  that  he 
who  is  kind,  pure  in  conduct,  benevolent  and  useful 
to  all  around  him  and  injurious  to  none,  is  a  good 
man  (which  he  certainly  is),  whatever  may  be  the 
reason  or  motive  or  faith  on  which  this  conduct  is 
grounded ;  but  that  he  is  the  good  man,  so  good  that 
it  is  only  "  graceless  bigots  "  who  ask  that  he  should 
be  still  better,  or  think  that  he  may  be.  Let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  the  reality  of  this  goodness  is 
denied  or  doubted  by  me,  or  its  measure  of  efficiency 
—  which  may  be  spoken  of  more  fully  in  other  con 
nections —  in  doing  that  work  of  preparation  for 
another  life,  which  is  the  object  of  this  life,  although 
not  the  object  of  that  goodness;  nor  let  it  be 
supposed  that  between  the  natural  faculties,  intellect 
ual  or  affectional,  and  the  spiritual  faculties,  or  be 
tween  natural  goodness  and  spiritual  goodness,  there 
is  any  antagonism.  The  truth  is  precisely  the  oppo 
site  of  this.  As  the  external  universe,  with  all  its 
relations,  is  perfectly  adapted  to  the  external  needs 
of  man,  so  is  it  perfectly  adapted  to  the  internal 
needs  of  man  when  it  is  called  to  the  service  of 
those  needs.  And  as  the  natural  faculties  compre 
hend  and  utilize  the  external  world  for  the  purposes 
of  this  life,  so  the  same  faculties,  when  they  are  the 


OF  THE 
THE    AFFECTIONAL   FAc|^f  J  y  £  £9g  J  IJ  7 

instruments  of  the  spiritual  faculties  and  are  subor 
dinated  to  and  animated  by  them,  lose  no  jot  of 
their  energy  or  their  success;  and  their  work  is 
thankfully  accepted  by  the  higher  faculties  as  the 
foundation  of  their  work. 

Here  is  a  good  man.  He  is  energetic  and  comba 
tive,  and  his  benevolence  turns  his  energy  and  com- 
bativeness  against  the  mischiefs  and  miseries  he  sees 
around  him.  Or  he  is  good  in  a  more  private  way. 
His  very  nature  makes  it  painful  to  him  to  see  pain, 
and  he  does  what  he  can  to  relieve  or  prevent  it  and 
give  pleasure.  But  would  this  man  abate  his  energy 
or  grow  less  kind  and  benevolent,  if  he  habitually 
looked  upon  all  men  as  his  brethren  because  all  are 
the  children  of  one  Father ;  if  he  habitually  regarded 
this  life  as  a  preparation  for  another,  and  all  his 
efforts  against  human  suffering  were  invigorated  by 
the  thought,  that  the  great  causes  of  this  suffering 
are  to  be  found  in  the  moral  depravity,  or  the  moral 
faults,  which  mar  the  character  and  sicken  the  soul 
just  where  they  must  be  clean  and  healthy  if  eter 
nal  happiness  is  sought  for  ?  Would  the  parent  be 
less  loving  if  he  looked  upon  his  children  as  immor 
tals  to  whom  he  had  been  permitted  to  give  life,  and 
who  had  been  placed  in  his  care  that  he  might  train 
them  for  a  happy  immortality  ?  Would  the  husband 
and  the  wife  love  each  other  less  or  with  less  purity 
4 


50  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

and  constancy,  if  they  believed  that  their  Father 
had  given  them  to  each  other,  as  the  very  best 
assistants  either  could  have,  and  as  claiming  from 
each  other  the  best  assistance  either  could  give,  in 
walking  together  in  the  path  of  unending  life  ? 

There  is  an  antagonism  between  all  that  is  natural 
and  all  that  is  spiritual,  when  that  which  is  natural 
rebels  against  all  that  is  spiritual,  and  if  it  had  its 
way  would  suppress  and  destroy  it.  And  there  is 
another  antagonism  when  the  spiritual  rises  against 
the  natural,  and  believes  that  its  own  growth  and 
health  demand  the  suppression  of  the  natural.  As 
ceticism  thought  so,  and  acted  upon  this  belief;  and 
this  may  have  been  well  in  times  when  the  spiritual 
could  not  live  unless  the  natural  was  suppressed. 
And  they  may  well  think  so  now,  who  not  only  feel 
the  natural  constantly  rising  against  the  spiritual, 
but  find  also  in  themselves  nothing  by  which  they 
can  compel  the  natural  to  serve  instead  of  ruling. 

But  all  this  is  disorder.  If  it  is  good  at  all,  It  is 
so  only  because  disorder  makes  it  the  best  thing  for 
the  time  and  the  person.  There  are  no  natural  in 
tellectual  faculties  which  would  not  be  helped  and 
strengthened  if  they  permitted  the  spiritual  intellect 
ual  faculties  to  become  their  guides  and  their  sup 
port.  And  there  are  no  true  spiritual  faculties  of 
the  intellect,  which  would  not  guide  wisely,  and 


NATURAL    AND    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  51 

invigorate,  and  make  more  and  more  successful  the 
natural  faculties.  And  there  are  no  natural  qualities 
or  affections,  and  no  form  of  natural  goodness,  which 
would  not  find  new  strength,  earnestness,  and  hap 
piness,  if  they  would  accept  spiritual  motives  and 
affections  as  their  very  soul. 

V.     OF    SOME    RELATIONS    BETWEEN    THE    NATURAL 
AND    THE    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES. 

The  truth  which  answers  all  questions  as  to  the 
relations  between  these  two  classes  of  faculties,  or 
qualities,  is  that  which  tells  us  that  this  life  is  a 
preparation  for  the  other  life.  But  this  truth  is 
itself  apprehended  and  perceived  only  by  the  spir 
itual  faculties.  In  their  present  debility  it  is  seen 
imperfectly,  if  at  all.  Probably  multitudes  would 
admit  it  in  words ;  and  would  rather  expect  it  to  be 
said  in  any  writing  concerning  man's  nature  and 
destiny.  But  everywhere  in  life,  in  common  opin 
ion,  motive,  interest,  and  conduct,  we  find  over 
whelming  proof  that  this  truth  is  seen  but  very 
dimly,  and  holds  a  very  subordinate  place  and  exerts 
but  little  influence  in  human  thought.  Hence  the 
consequences  of  this  truth  must  be  seen  but  very 
dimly  and  imperfectly.  But  if  this  central  truth  in 
the  philosophy  oi  human  life  and  destiny  were  seen 


52  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

with  any  clearness,  it  would  also  be  seen  as  a  posi 
tive  certainty,  that  this  world  must  exist  because  of 
and  in  reference  to  another,  and  that  the  faculties 
which  have  this  world  for  their  proper  object,  must 
exist  for  the  sake  of  those  which  have  another  world 
for  their  proper  object.  It  would  be  seen  and 
known  that  the  lower  should  be  the  instruments  of 
the  higher,  and  would  find  in  this  instrumentality 
their  greatest  value  ;  and  that  the  higher  need  these 
lower  as  instruments  without  which  their  own  work 
cannot  be  done  as  it  should  be  done. 

If  we  believe  that  this  life  is  intended  to  be  pre 
paratory  to  another,  we  may  believe  that  this  world 
was  intended  to  assist  us  in  making  this  life  a  prepa 
ration  for  another.  And  that,  for  this  purpose,  this 
world  is  created  such  as  to  afford  exercise  not  only 
for  the  natural  faculties  which  would  utilize  it  for 
itself,  but  for  the  spiritual  faculties  which  would  use 
it  in  this  way  of  preparation.  To  some  extent  this 
has  always  been  seen ;  and  some  religious  men  have 
labored  to  find  in  this  evidence  of  the  existence,  the 
love  and  wisdom  and  providence,  of  God. 

The  men  who  are  most  energetic  and  successful 
in  their  investigation  of  physical  nature  may  not 
know,  or  may  forget,  that  this  creation  must  be,  in 
some  way  and  measure,  a  record  of  its  Maker;  and 
a  record,  which,  if  we  have  not  yet  read  it,  can 


NATURAL    AND    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  53 

hardly  be  illegible  in  itself.  If  this  be  true,  God 
must  know  it,  and  cannot  forget  it.  And  it  may  be 
that  if  the  present  condition  of  human  nature  makes 
it  now  impossible  for  these  two  uses  of  the  external 
world,  —  for  the  knowledge  of  itself  which  the 
study  of  it  yields,  and  the  knowledge  of  Him  which 
the  study  of  it  might  yield,  —  if  these  two  uses 
cannot  now  be  brought  into  unity  and  conjunction 
and  worked  out  together,  —  it  may  be  that  He  can 
provide,  and  is  providing,  for  them  separately.  If 
the  scientists  of  to-day,  in  their  devotion  to  external 
nature,  are  blind  to  all  that  is  within  it  or  above  it, 
they  may  still  be  accumulating  stores  of  natural 
science,  which  at  a  later  age  of  the  world  and  by 
other  men  will  be  made  to  yield  their  harvest  of 
spiritual  science. 

Attempts  of  that  kind  have  not  been  wanting  in 
various  ages.  But  it  must  be  admitted  that  they 
have  been  feeble  and  ineffectual.  If  a  poet  has  said 
that  "  an  undevout  astronomer  is  mad,"  he  has  not 
shown  it  to  be  so,  nor  is  it  more  true  of  an  astron 
omer  than  it  is  of  any  other  scientist.  We  live 
in  an  age  characterized  by  a  marvellous  activity 
and  success  of  the  natural  faculties,  and  an  equal 
torpor  .and  debility  of  the  spiritual  faculties;  but 
we  may  hope  that  another  age  will  come,  when  the 
spiritual  faculties  will  be  roused  and  strengthened, 


z"  i^f 


54  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

and  will'  do  their  proper  work  with  an  energy  and  a 
fruitfulness  like  those  which  mark  the  present  activ 
ity  of  the  natural  faculties.  Perhaps  an  early  part 
of  this  work  will  be  the  laying  hold  of  this  external 
science,  by  those  whose  spiritual  faculties  are  equal 
vj  to  the  effort  and  can  therefore  make  an  appropriate 
use  of  all  it  has  gathered  for  them,  and  show  that 
i  the  world  which  God  made  and  pervades  is  a  mirror 
of  Him,  and  its  activity  of  His  activity.  I  indulge 
the  hope  that,  when  that  good  day  —  that  brighter 

jJ[    day — shall  come,  it  will  not  be  found  needful  to 

\  continue  this  division  of  labor  with  such  an  entire 

distinctness  of  work.     But  that  the  natural  scientist 

will  then  be  also  the  spiritual  scientist ;  and  that  he 

. ?  ^  will  labor  with  not  less  earnestness  and  efficiency  and 
enjoyment,  when  he  is  guided  and  animated  by  the 
experience  that  every  day  adds  to  his  knowledge  of 
the  universe  which  God  has  made;  and  at  the  same 
time  to  his  knowledge  of  its  Maker.  Then,  at  least, 
one  long-lived  delusion  will  have  perished, —  the 
"delusion  which  tells  us  that  this  life  and  immortality 
are  enemies,  and  that  each  must  be  guarded  from 
the  encroachment  of  the  other.  For  it  will  be  seen 
that  life  is  but  the  beginning  of  immortality,  and 
immortality  but  the  completion  of  life ;  and  that 
they  have  one  Lord,  and  one  Law. 

There  is  one  way  in  which  the  present  predomi- 


NATURAL   AND    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  55 

nance  of  the  natural  faculties  over  the  spiritual 
faculties  leads  to  a  sad  result,  which  cannot  be  un 
derstood  without  some  consideration  of  a  distinction 
between  these  two  classes  of  faculties,  which  is  sel 
dom  adverted  to,  and  perhaps  not  often  known.  It 
is  the  distinction  between  the  evidence  which  the 
natural  intellectual  faculties  require  and  may  find, 
and  that  evidence  which  the  spiritual  intellectual 
faculties  require  and  may  find. 

The  former  ask  for  proof  of  a  certain  kind.  All 
this  proof  must  necessarily  begin,  as  all  proof  must 
begin,  with  axioms,  or  truths  not  proved  nor  prov 
able,  but  held  to  be  true  because  they  are  seen  to  be 
true,  and  the  natural  reason  declares  that  they  must 
be  true.  But  after  these  first  and  simple  foundations 
are  laid,  a  superstructure  is  built  upon  them  by 
gradual  accretions  of  truth  admitted  upon  a  certain 
kind  of  proof.  If  mathematics  enters  into  the  in 
quiry,  this  proof  must  amount  to  what  it  considers 
demonstration.  If  the  facts  or  laws  of  natural  sci 
ence  are  investigated,  here  too  must  be  proof;  not 
now  mathematical,  but  resting  upon  facts  which  the 
senses  may  ascertain,  and  conclusions  which  may  be 
tested  by  these  facts,  and  which  solve  the  problems 
of  science  ;  and  only  when  they  do  this  perfectly  are 
the  principles  of  science  acknowledged  as  certainly 
true. 


56  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

But  there  may  also  be  progress  in  spiritual  knowl 
edge  by  the  exercise  of  the  spiritual  faculties.  This 
too  must  begin,  as  all  knowledge  and  all  proof  must 
begin,  with  axioms ;  with  truths  conceded  because 
they  are  seen  by  these  faculties  to  be  true.  And 
these  axioms  can  be  seen  to  be  true  and  certain  only 
by  the  spiritual  intellectual  faculties.  For  the 
natural  faculties  have  nothing  to  do  with  them; 
they  can  neither  discover,  nor  recognize  them,  nor 
use  them  as  the  foundations  for  farther  natural 
knowledge.  And  then  when  the  spiritual  faculties 
use  these  axioms,  they  use  them  in  their  own  way. 
They  do  not  build  up  on  them  a  structure  of  belief 
every  part  of  which  is  made  certain  by  evidence  or 
argument  of  like  kind  with  those  which  are  proper 
to  natural  science.  There  is  nowhere  what  natural 
science  would  call  proof.  I  will  not  now  attempt  to 
state  the  reason  for  and  the  good  derived  from  this 
difference,  but  will  only  say  that  there  never  yet 
was,  and  there  never  will  be,  because  there  never 
can  be,  any  religious  truth  which  is  not  so  given  and 
does  not  so  present  itself  to  the  mind,  that  it  may 
be  rejected  if  the  mind  be  in  a  negative  state  in 
regard  to  it.  Neither  the  central  truth,  that  there 
is  a  God,  nor  any  of  the  truths  which  cluster  about 
this  centre,  admit  of  proof  in  the  natural  sense  of 
that  word.  For  spiritual  truths  rest  on  spiritual 


NATUBAL   AND    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  57 

proof.  They  admit  certainty,  and  certainty  of  a 
higher  kind.  They  not  only  rest  upon  primary 
axioms  as  do  natural  truths ;  but  in  the  whole  struct 
ure  of  belief  and  faith,  something  of  this  character 
of  axioms,  of  this  acceptance  of  truth  because  it  is 
seen  to  be  truth  and  necessary  truth,  prevails. 
There  is,  in  systematic  religious  truth,  ample  room 
ibr  the  most  exact  logic,  the  profoundest  argument, 
the  most  cautious  sagacity.  But  they  are  spiritual ; 
they  are  true  to  their  own  work  and  their  own  char 
acter  ;  they  do  not  ask  for  and  would  not  be  satis 
fied  with  what  natural  science  regards  and  requires 
as  proof. 

Hence  we  may  see  one  difficulty  under  which 
scientific  men  labor  with  regard  to  spiritual  truth. 
They  have  established  habits  of  experiment  and 
observation  by  the  senses,  and  of  rigorous  ratioci 
nation  of  a  kind  appropriate  to  the  subjects  of  their 
inquiry.  They  owe  their  success  —  whether  this 
means  fame  and  position,  or  the  pleasant  conscious 
ness  of  knowledge  —  to  a  careful  adherence  to  this 
way  of  thinking  and  concluding.  It  is  and  must  be 
very  difficult  for  them  to  believe  that  there  is  or 
can  be  any  truth  which  should  not  be  sought  and 
may  not  be  learned  in  that  way.  But  religious 
truth  cannot  be  so  learned,  and  should  not  be  so 
sought  for.  This,  however,  is  the  only  way  they 


58  THE    INFINITE    AND    TIIE    FINITE. 

know  of,  for  seeking  after  or  learning  truth.  How 
can  they  escape  the  conclusion  that  religious  truth 
lacks  all  basis,  all  confirmation,  and  is  not  truth  but 
error  ? 

With  all  the  breaking  down  of  religious  doctrine, 
there  is  still  much  religious  sentiment  with  many 
persons.  It  refuses  to  be  suppressed.  And  a^  it 
demands  some  formal  belief  as  its  expression,  it  ac 
cepts  that  into  which  it  was  educated,  or  which  it 
prefers  among  the  many  it  may  choose  from.  This 
religious  sentiment  imparts  its  own  conviction  to 
the  belief  thus  held ;  and  this  belief  thus  becomes, 
in  many  cases,  very  strong.  It  is  far  better  than 
unbelief;  but  it  is  not  held  on  spiritual-rational 
grounds.  This  is  so  now ;  but  it  needs  not  be  so, 
and  will  not  always  be  so. 

A  distinction  exists  between  the  natural  affections 
and  those  which  are  spiritual,  analogous  to  that 
between  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  intellectual 
faculties.  We  have  already  said  there  is  much  nat 
ural  goodness  among  men  now ;  much  that  is  real, 
active,  and  most  beneficial.  But  in  some  minds  it 
leads  to  the  positive  rejection  of  spiritual  goodness. 
They  do  not  desire,  they  cannot  perhaps  imagine,  any 
higher  goodness  than  they  can  see  to  be  derivable 
from  a  due  desire  to  make  men  live  as  they  should 
live,  and  be  what  they  should  be,  in  this  world. 


NATURAL   Al^D    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  59 

They  may  or  they  may  not  express  this  rejection  of 
all  spiritual  goodness.  But  it  is  there. 

With  many  of  those  who  are  characterized  by 
natural  goodness,  while  there  is  no  positive  rejec 
tion,  there  is  little  thought  of,  or  care  for,  or  aim 
after,  spiritual  goodness.  It  is  only  nothing  to 
them. 

Let  me  try  to  illustrate  this  distinction  or  differ 
ence  farther.  And,  first,  as  to  the  intellectual  facul 
ties. 

As  the  external  world  is  given  us  for  two  pur 
poses,  —  one,  to  be  a  suitable  home  for  us  while  we 
live  in  it;  the  other,  to  educate  us  for  the  other 
world  while  we  live  in  this,  —  it  is  the  lower  or 
natural  faculties  which  utilize  this  world  as  our 
home,  and  find  pleasure  in  studying  it  and  all  its 
elements  with  no  reference  to  any  possible  relation 
to  another  world  ;  while  the  higher  or  spiritual 
faculties  do  or  may  lay  hold  of  all  the  external  truth 
which  the  lower  faculties  discover,  and  use  it  for  their 
own  higher  purposes.  Because  man  possesses  these 
two  distinct  classes  of  faculties,  every  thing  belong 
ing  to  the  external  world  may  be  seized  and  used 
by  either  class,  in  its  own  way,  for  its  own  purpose, 
and  its  own  result. 

Precisely  the  same  thing  is  true  of  every  thing  of 
the  inner  world,  of  mind,  thought,  or  affection. 


60  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

Thus,  there  are  certain  ideas  (I  do  not  profess  to 
use  this  word  with  metaphysical  precision,  if  indeed 
there  be  such  a  thing)  which  belong  to  every  ra 
tional  mind ;  as  the  ideas  of  existence,  of  unity  or 
plurality,  of  identity  or  difference,  and  very  many 
others,  and  among  them  the  idea  of  cause,  or  causa 
tion.  I  have  nothing  to  say  as  to  whether  these 
ideas  are  innate  or  connate,  or  suggested,  or  original 
or  derived,  or  constructed,  all  of  which  phrases  and 
many  more  are  used  by  those  who  treat  of  these 
subjects.  I  mean  only  that  every  rational  human 
mind  finds  these  ideas  in  it,  when  it  has  any  occa 
sion  to  make  use  of  them. 

For  example,  take  the  idea  of  causation.  This 
belongs  necessarily  and  inevitably  to  human  thought. 
No  man  ever  got  rid  of  it,  or  lived  a  day  or  an  hour 
without  making  use  of  it,  however  unconsciously. 
Natural  common  sense  constantly  accepts  it,  relies 
upon  it,  and  makes  use  of  it.  But  how  do  natural 
science  and  natural  logic  deal  with  it  ?  They  recog 
nize  only  certain  sequences  of  events :  they  say,  we 
neither  know  nor  can  know  any  thing  more  than 
that,  when  a  certain  thing  has  occurred,  another  cer 
tain  thing  has  followed,  and  this  so  uniformly  that 
we  believe  it  always  will.  This  is  true,  say  these 
faculties,  as  far  as  we  know.  And  then  they  hold 
that  we  fall  into  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  to  be 


NATURAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    FACULTIES.  61 

necessary  which  we  first  think  only  invariable.  They 
suppose  we  know  nothing  of  cause,  or  causation. 
And  they  are  perfectly  right,  on  their  own  ground. 
The  natural  powers  of  the  mind  do  know  nothing, 
and  never  can  know  any  thing,  about  the  origin  or 
nature  or  reality  of  causation ;  although  the  idea  of 
causation  is  universal  and  inevitable,  and  the  natu 
ral  faculties  do  themselves  seize  and  hold  it  and  use 
it  in  their  earlier  development,  and  continue  so  to 
do  in  their  fullest  development. 

It  is  in  every  mind ;  and  it  is  there  for  two  pur 
poses.  First,  that  natural  common  sense,  or  the 
natural  faculties  in  their  healthy  condition  and  nor 
mal  action,  may  make  use  of  it  for  all  the  needs  and 
uses  of  common  life  or  of  natural  science.  But  this 
idea  is  in  the  mind  for  another  purpose  also :  it  is, 
that  the  higher  spiritual  faculties  may  make  their 
use  of  it ;  and  that,  so  used,  it  may  lift  up  the  mind 
through  the  chain  of  causes  to  the  Supreme  Cause; 
and  thus  make  some  idea  of  God  to  exist  in  all  minds 
but  those  incapable  by -degradation  of  thinking  such 
thoughts,  or  those  in  whom  the  idea  is  crushed  out 
forcibly  by  the  natural  faculties  when  they  have 
become  so  perverted,  so  unhealthy,  —  insane,  —  as 
to  aim  at  and  succeed  in  paralyzing  the  spiritual 
faculties. 

For  the  natural  faculties  may  utterly  pervert  the 


62  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

influence  and  effect  of  this  idea  of  causation.  They 
may  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  chain  of  causes 
•  does  not  extend  upwards  and  end  in  a  Supreme 
Cause ;  but  that  it  is  a  revolving,  a  circular  or  end 
less  chain.  They  may  hold  that  the  universe  exists 
as  a  congeries  of  causes  and  effects,  which  produce 
each  other;  that  it  is  sufficient  in  itself;  that  so 
much  cause,  or  force,  is  in  it,  and  operates  in  a  defi 
nite  and  unchanging  way  in  and  through  all  the 
modes  of  action  which,  taken  together,  constitute  the 
universe.  They  may  call  this  universe  God,  or  not ; 
nor  does  it  make  any  difference  except  in  words. 
For  Pantheism  is  simply  Nontheism. 

Then,  the  natural  faculties  deny  that  there  is  any 
such  thing  as  causation.  They  can  hardly  help  doing 
so,  if  they  are  true  to  their  own  logic.  For  all 
force,  or  potency,  or  causation,  is  from  God,  and  is 
Him  in  action.  It  is  the  putting  forth  of  His  infinite 
power  which  sustains  all  being  by  continual  and 
constant  action ;  and  all  the  laws  of  being  are  but 
the  methods  of  that  action.  He  is  the  First  Cause ; 
and  all  subsequent  causation  is  the  extension  of  His 
primary  causation.  This,  the  merely  natural  faculties 
cannot  perceive  or  understand  or  acknowledge ;  be 
cause  the  whole  subject  lies  beyond  their  scope. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  natural  affections,  and  sup 
pose  them  carried  to  the  utmost  point  of  philanthropy, 


NATURAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    FACULTIES.  63 

private  or  public.  Men  ask  what  more  can  they  do  ? 
They  are  right  in  this  question,  on  their  own  ground. 
They  not  only  stand  on  earth,  but  they  do  not  lift 
their  eyes  from  earth.  They  regard  only  earth  and 
earthly  life.  And,  for  this  life,  what  more  can  be 
done  than  natural  philanthropy  can  do?  But  this 
philanthropy  takes  no  cognizance  of  the  truth  that 
whatever  we  can  do  to  help  a  man  through  an  un 
ending  life  is  of  far  more  worth  than  all  we  can  do 
to  help  him  during  this  transitory  life.  Natural 
philanthropy  does  not  know,  cannot  possibly  know, 
that  it  would  itself  be  far  more  ardent,  far  wiser,  far 
more  successful  in  its  own  work,  if  it  were  the  ex 
pression,  the  instrument  and  embodiment  of  a  spirit 
ual  philanthropy. 

VI.     OF    THE    COMPARATIVE    STRENGTH    OF    THE    NAT 
URAL    AND    THE    SPIRITUAL    FACULTIES. 

As  either  the  natural  faculties  or  the  spiritual 
faculties  may  have  any  measure  of  strength  or  of 
weakness,  so  the  quality  and  character  of  a  race,  an 
age,  an  individual,  depends  mainly  on  the  prevalence 
of  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  classes  of  facul 
ties,  and  also  upon  the  degree  of  the  prevalence  of 
that  which  is  the  stronger.  For  either  may  be  the 
master,  but  with  only  an  uncertain  ascendency ;  or 


64  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

it  may  have  any  degree  of  sovereignty,  until  it  be 
comes  despotic,  and  is  fiercely  hostile  to  the  other, 
and  seeks  its  destruction. 

A  general  view  of  the  condition  of  mankind,  es 
pecially  among  the  nations  of  Christendom,  and  most 
among  those  which  may  be  considered  as  the  most 
advanced  in  civilization,  would  lead  to  the  conclu 
sion,  that  at  no  period  within  the  records  of  history 
have  the  natural  faculties  of  men  been  so  powerful, 
so  active,  or  so  successful,  as  in  the  present  period. 
And  that  at  no  former  time  have  the  spiritual  facul 
ties,  intellectual  or  affectional,  been,  in  proportion  to 
the  natural  faculties,  so  feeble,  so  inactive,  or  so  un 
fruitful  as  they  are  now.  If  this  be  true,  it  is  a 
truth  which  cannot  be  generally  acknowledged.  For 
it  can  be  seen  to  be  true  only  by  those  faculties 
Avhich  are  now  so  feeble,  and  which,  if  not  silent, 
speak  in  muffled  and  uncertain  tones. 

If  this  be  so,  the  darkness  which  covereth  the 
nations  may  be  nevertheless,  and  we  believe  it  is, 
that  darkest  hour  which  precedes  the  dawn.  And 
we  believe  too  that  the  day,  which  is  about  to  come, 
already  casts  some  light,  a  dim  and  broken  light, 
upon  the  clouded  sky. 

These  higher  faculties  certainly  are  not  in  all  men, 
nor  in  most  men,  wholly  silent.  Perhaps  in  no  man 
are  they  absolutely  inert ;  for  then  it  would  be  im- 


NATURAL    AND    SPIRITUAL    FACULTIES.  65 

possible  to  rank  the  man  higher  than  the  animal. 
They  tell  nearly  all  men  that  there  is  a  God ;  that 
there  is  a  future  life  ;  and  that  the  life  which  follows 
death  is  in  some  way  dependent  upon  the  life  before 
death.  They  tell  these  great  truths  very  obscurely 
and  imperfectly,  and  very  variously ;  and  everywhere 
their  utterance  is  distorted  by  the  influence  of  the 
natural  faculties.  These  can,  of  themselves,  tell  us 
nothing  whatever  concerning  God  or  immortality. 
When  the  higher  faculties  take  some  cognizance  of 
these  ideas,  and  at  least  hold  them  as  topics  for 
consideration,  and  the  lower  faculties  claim  the  right 
to  deal  with  them  as  their  property,  supposing 
themselves  to  be  sovereign  over  all  the  domain  of 
truth,  —  a  claim  now  generally  advanced  by  those 
who  have  cultivated  these  natural  faculties  most 
exclusively  and  most  successfully,  —  these  lower  fac 
ulties  can  only  deceive,  can  only  darken  the  intellect. 
It  is  of  the  higher  faculties  that  we  must  ask  about 
these  higher  things.  They  will  use  the  lower  fac 
ulties,  and  all  they  teach,  as  their  instruments;  will 
find  them  most  useful  and  wholly  indispensable 
instruments.  These  two  classes  of  faculties  (and 
each  of  them  is  either  intellectual  or  affectional), 
taken  together,  constitute  the  man.  Let  the  two, 
the  inner  and  the  outer,  co-operate,  the  lower  in  due 
subordination  to  the  higher,  and  there  is  no  limit, 

5 


66  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

and  there  will  be  no  end,  to  their  progress.  There 
will  be  error  in  their  utterance,  but  it  will  be  that 
which  is  due  to  the  mists  of  morning  and  the  shad 
ow  of  the  earth;  and  it  will  gradually  disappear 
as  the  light  grows  stronger.  If  there  be  danger  in 
listening  to  their  voice,  we  shall  be  effectually  guarded 
against  it  if  we  listen  reverently  and  humbly,  seek 
ing  to  hear  in  their  voice  the  voice  of  God,  and 
believing  that  if  what  we  hear  is  true,  it  is  then 
His  truth,  given  by  Him  to  men,  through  the  facul 
ties  which  He  has  given  to  men  that  through  them 
they  may  hear  Him  and  know  Him.  And  the  hope 
is  not  presumptuous,  that  in  this  way  we  may  reach 
some  elementary  knowledge  of  the  relations  between 
the  Infinite  and  the  Finite,  between  God  and  Man. 

It  is  perhaps  impossible  that  either  the  natural 
or  the  spiritual  faculties  should  be  utterly  extinct 
or  wholly  silent.  It  may  never  be  so  in  any  age, 
or  any  race,  or  any  man.  But  one  of  them  may 
be  far  more  powerful  than  the  other ;  for  upon  either 
of  them  the  whole  strength  and  force  of  the  race  or 
the  man  may  be  concentrated,  leaving  the  other 
exceedingly  feeble.  In  the  early  ages  of  civilization 
it  would  seem  that  religion  exerted  great  power. 
Of  its  character  or  quality  I  say  nothing,  but  only 
that  it  had  great  power.  One  test  of  this  may  be 
found  in  the  remains  of  their  architecture.  These 


NATURAL   AND    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  67 

are  all,  or  nearly  all,  religious  structures ;  many  of 
them  of  enormous  magnitude,  indicating  that  the 
whole  strength  of  the  nation  must  have  been  em 
ployed  in  their  erection.  And  such  remains  as  we 
have  of  their  literature  or  philosophy  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  their  religion  —  such  as  it  was  — 
mingled  with  all  their  thoughts,  giving  to  them  a 
certain  tone  and  color. 

Most  true  it  is  that  religion  was  then  very  largely 
a  superstition,  often  irrational,  and  sometimes  cruel. 
But  it  was  still  religion,  however  false,  mistaken,  and 
perverted.  We  must  not  forget  that  the  question 
of  the  comparative  vitality  and  force  of  either  the 
natural  or  the  spiritual  faculties  is  the  only  one  we 
are  considering  now,  and  is  perfectly  independent 
of  the  question  whether  the  spiritual  faculties,  intel 
lectual  or  affectional,  were  exerted  wisely  or  foolishly, 
usefully  or  mischievously.  The  spiritual  faculties 
may  be  very  feeble,  and  yet  in  all  they  do  be  wild 
and  erroneous.  They  may  have  any  measure  of 
strength  and  predominance,  and  be  equally  wild  and 
mistaken. 

This  superiority  in  force  and  activity  of  the  spir 
itual  faculties  comes  down  to  historic  ages,  and  in 
Greece  fills  the  poems  of  Homer  with  Gods  and 
Goddesses ;  and  holds  such  a  place  in  the  mind  of 
Plato,  that  one  of  his  critics,  perhaps  the  ablest, 


68  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

has  said  that  it  seemed  impossible  for  him  to  pursue 
any  train  of  thought  without  beginning  and  ending 
with  the  idea  of  God ;  and  it  built  the  Parthenon. 
The  latest  historians  of  Rome  attribute  the  invin 
cible  strength  of  Roman  character  in  their  earlier 
ages  to  the  force  of  the  religious  sentiment  and  the 
power  of  the  sanctions  of  religion,  derived,  as  some 
of  them  say,  from  their  Oscan  ancestry.  And  if  we 
smile  with  equal  sadness  and  contempt  at  the  deifi 
cation  of  Augustus  and  his  immediate  successor,  let 
us  remember  that  there  was  a  reality  in  this  to  many 
minds.  Nor  is  it  a  wholly  meaningless  fact  that 
among  the  offices  by  which  Augustus  secured  that 
aggregation  of  all  political  power  which  made  him  a 
despot,  was  that  <5f  Pontifex  Maximus,  —  High 
Priest. 

If  we  come  to  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe  we  may 
remember  the  Crusades.  Then  too  were  built  those 
cathedrals  which  remain  the  unequalled  wonders  of 
the  world.  We  call  those  centuries  "  the  dark  ages," 
because  there  was  so  little  of  what  we  call  light. 
We  may  well  call  them  so  if  we  look  only  at  the 
fantastic  follies  which  seemed  to  darken  human 
thought  on  every  subject.  We  may  say  it  was  a 
mere  folly  which  threw  Europe  upon  Asia  in  the 
Crusades ;  but  it  was  a  religious  foll}^  And  let  us 
not  forget,  if  we  are  seeking  to  know  only  whether 


NATURAL    AND    SPIRITUAL   FACULTIES.  69 

religion  was  strong  or  feeble  in  those  days  (not 
whether  it  were  wise  or  foolish),  the  diversified  but 
irresistible  evidence  that  it  entered,  in  some  form 
or  other,  and  with  some  result  or  other,  into  all 
speculation  and  nearly  all  action. 

If  we  come  down  to  our  own  times,  the  field  is  too 
broad  to  be  examined  in  any  detail.     If  we  suggest 
that  the  temple  of  Luxor,  covering  some  thousands 
of  acres,  and  proving  by  its  stupendous  fragments 
the  enormous  amount  of  labor  it  must  have  cost,  —  if 
we  suggest  that  this  one  temple  in  the  estimation  of  x  <» 
skilful  engineers  consumed  as  much  of  labor  as  the  ,  ^f  ' 
iron  road  which  is  now  a  pathway  from  the  Atlantic  jhCi 
to  the  Pacific,  or  the  canal  of  Suez  which  now  con 
nects  Europe  with  Asia,  we  do  but  touch  upon  a 
course  of  inquiry  which  would  lead  to  the  conclusion      v  / 
we  have  already  expressed  concerning  the  character    .''[ 
of  this  age  in  comparison  with  that  of  its  predeces 
sors.    Whether  it  were  wiser  and  better  to  make  that 
long  railroad  rather  than  a  temple  as  large  as  that 
of  Luxor,  is  not  now  the  question;  which  is  only 
this :  was  it  the  spiritual  or  the  natural  element  of 
the  human  character  which  built  the  temple  or  the 
railroad  ? 

But,  we  repeat,  these  spiritual  faculties  are  never 
utterly  extinct,  or  wholly  silent.  Man  must  have 
some  idea,  some  thought  of  God,  some  thought  of 


70  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

spiritual  things,  even  if  it  does  not  amount  to  belief, 
or  even  if  it  amounts  to  denial  ;  or  he  would  cease 
to  be  man.  And  these  spiritual  faculties  are  far 
from  being  extinct  or  wholly  silent  now. 

VH.    OF    THE   IDEA   OF   GOD. 

What  is  our  idea  of  God  ;  what  idea  of  Him,  the 
Infinite,  is  possible  to  man  ? 

To  answer  these  questions  we  must  revert  to  the 

fact  already  fully  stated,  that  man  possesses  at  his 

birth  two  natures,  meaning  by  this  word  "  nature  " 

the  complex  of  all  the  qualities,  faculties,  and  ten- 

v.'      dencies  which  he  has  at  birth.    All  of  these  are  then 

\~    ":  wholly  undeveloped  ;  and  all  are  capable  of  indefi 

nite  development. 

All  of  them  which  taken  together  constitute  one 
of  those  natures,  I  have  called  the  natural  faculties  ; 
they  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  earthly  nature. 
All  of  them  which  constitute  the  other  and  the 
higher  nature,  I  have  called  the  spiritual  faculties  ; 
>,they  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  heavenly  nature. 

The  earthly  nature  is  given  for  two  purposes  ;  one 

^v  is,  to  possess  and  comprehend  and  utilize  the  earth 

and  all  that  belongs  to  it  ;  the  other  is  to  subserve 

the  purposes  of  the  heavenly  nature.     For  this  na 

ture  is  given  because  man  is  immortal,  and  it  is  such 


THE    IDEA   OF    GOD.  71 

that,  by  a  due  exercise  and  cultivation  of  it,  man's 
immortality  may  be  happy ;  that  is,  heavenly.  And 
the  earthly  nature  is  in  all  respects  and  particulars 
adapted  to  become  the  instrument  of  the  heavenly 
nature,  and  the  means  by  which  man,  while  living 
on  earth,  becomes  prepared  for  heaven. 

The  next  question  I  would  consider  is,  in  what 
way  and  by  what  means  are  these  two  natures,  first, 
or  in  the  beginning,  exercised  or  developed?  Or, 
what  is  the  foundation  of  their  development? 

As  to  the  lower  or  earthly  nature  there  can  be  no 
uncertainty.  Sensation  is  the  foundation  of  all  its 
activity  and  the  beginning  of  all  its  growth.  An 
infant,  a  child,  or  a  man,  would  be  perfectly  devoid 
of  thought,  consciousness,  or  action,  if  he  never  had 
sensation.  He  learns  first  from  his  senses,  and  after 
wards  from  his  thoughts  about  his  sensations.  In 
the  beginning  what  he  learns  from  his  senses  is  ob 
scure  and  imperfect,  and  his  thoughts  about  his  sen 
sations  even  more  so.  As  growth  proceeds,  what 
he  thus  learns,  and  what  he  thinks  about  what  he 
thus  learns,  becomes  more  distinct.  This  improve 
ment  goes  on  indefinitely.  The  senses  never  tell 
him  every  thing,  and  what  they  tell  him  often  needs 
correction.  But  his  mind  makes  this  correction, 
step  by  step,  and  gradually  enlarges  and  rectifies  his 
knowledge  of  the  universe  about  him,  beyond  what 


72  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

the  senses  alone  can  ever  teach  him.  This  his  nat 
ural  faculties  do  by  rationally  using  instruction  de 
rived  from  his  senses ;  for  that  instruction  remains 
for  ever  the  foundation  of  all  he  learns  or  can  learn 
about  his  earthly  home. 

If,  now,  we  ask  what  is  the  foundation  of  the 
earliest  exercise  and  the  continued  growth  of  the 
higher,  the  spiritual,  the  heavenly  nature,  the  answer 
is  this :  what  sensation  is  to  the  lower,  the  natural 
or  earthly  faculties,  Revelation  is  to  the  higher,  the 
spiritual  or  heavenly  faculties. 

This  is  not  so  obvious.  Or  rather  this  truth  can 
itself  be  apprehended  only  by  the  higher  or  spiritual 
faculties.  This  age  is  characterized  by  the  compar 
ative  debility  of  these  faculties,  and  none  escape  the 
influence  of  their  age.  It  must  then  be  difficult  for 
the  spiritual  faculties  to  see  clearly  their  own  foun 
dation,  while  the  lower  faculties  do  see  clearly  their 
foundation.  But  were  the  spiritual  faculties  as 
strong  and  free  and  unimpeded  in  their  perceptions 
and  in  their  work  as  the  natural  faculties  are,  they 
would  see  clearly  that  they  rest  wholly  upon  Rev 
elation.  For  they  would  see  that  it  is  simply  impos 
sible  for  the  natural  faculties,  however  powerful  or 
however  cultivated,  to  form,  of  and  from  themselves., 
the  first  or  simplest  idea  of  any  thing  more  than 
earth  and  earthly  knowledge  and  earthly  life. 


THE    IDEA   OF    GOD.  73 

They  could  not  have  or  give  the  least  idea  or  sug 
gestion  of  any  life  after  death,  or  of  an  invisible, 
personal,  infinite  God.  For  all  this,  man  must  de 
pend  on  Revelation.  I  mean  by  this  word  Revela 
tion,  truth  taught  by  the  Lord  directly  to  mankind 
in  such  places,  in  such  times,  in  such  measures  or 
forms,  and  by  or  through  such  agencies,  as  He  sees 
to  be  best.  I  shall  recur  to  this  subject  and  en 
deavor  to  say  something  of  these  various  forms  and 
agencies.  Now  I  would  say  only  that  I  consider 
the  primary  and  constant  law  to  be  this.  All  truths 
or  germs  or  elements  of  knowledge,  which  relate  to 
this  world  or  life  therein,  must  come  to  the  mind 
from  this  world,  through  sensation;  and  are  then 
committed  to  the  lower  or  natural  faculties,  which 
are  adapted  to  these  truths  and  to  this  world.  Pre 
cisely  so  all  truths  or  germs  or  elements  of  knowl 
edge  which  relate  to  the  other  world  and  life  therein, 
must  come  to  the  mind  from  that  world  through 
Revelation,  and  are  then  committed  to  the  higher 
or  spiritual  faculties  which  are  adapted  to  those 
truths  and  to  that  world. 

The  spiritual  faculties,  receiving  thus  the  idea  of 
God  from  Revelation,  impart  it  to  the  natural  facul 
ties.  The  spiritual  faculties  can  receive  it  at  first 
only  in  its  simplest  form,  and  they  can  impart  it  to 
the  natural  faculties  only  in  such  wise  and  measure 


74  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

as  they  are  ready  to  receive  it.  In  such  wise  they 
do  receive  it,  and  may  thereafter  bring  their  resources 
to  the  aid  of  the  spiritual  faculties.  Thenceforward, 
as  far  as  these  two  classes  of  faculties  are  free  from 
perversion  and  abuse,  and  work  together  in  harmony, 
the  lower  subordinated  to  the  higher  and  the  higher 
instructing  the  lower, — just  so  far  the  whole  man 
grows  in  intelligence  and  wisdom,  and  the  ideas  of 
God,  and  of  immortality,  and  all  the  ideas  which 
belong  to  religious  truth,  grow  in  force,  distinctness, 
and  development. 

What,  then,  is  the  first  and  simplest  form  of  the" 
idea  of  God;  its  seed-form  so  to  speak,  out  of 
which  may  grow  all  possible  development  and  en 
largement  ? 

The  first  answer  and  a  most  important  answer 
to  this  question  is,  that  this  idea  must,  while 
given  by  Revelation,  rest  upon  and  be  clothed  with 
ideas  derived  by  man  from  himself.  All  knowl 
edge  originates  in  sensation,  and  all  thought  must 
begin  with  the  objects  of  sense.  But  in  man  it  soon 
rises  into  consciousness.  And  if  we  ask  ourselves 
what  we  know,  we  become  aware  that  we  know  our 
own  existence  more  certainly  than  we  know  any 
thing  which  the  senses  teach  us,  or  which  we  can 
learn  from  thought  employed  about  what  the  senses 
teach.  We  cannot  doubt  our  existence  because  that 


THE    IDEA   OF    GOD.  75 

doubt  proves  existence.    And  we  learn  our  existence 
from  consciousness. 

As  soon  as  consciousness  passes  beyond  this  first 
and  simplest  idea  of  personal  existence,  it  begins 
to  ask  itself  what  it  knows  of  our  personal  indi 
viduality.  It  knows  this:  that  we  have  affections, 
or  purposes,  or  a  motive  force  within  us;  that  we 
have  thoughts;  and  that  we  act  because  our  affec 
tions  through  our  thoughts  lead  to  action,  and  we 
have  power  to  act.  Then  the  spiritual  faculties  may 
begin  to  impart  what  they  have  learned  from  Rev 
elation.  And  then  and  thus  men  acquire  the  idea . 
of  One,  in  whom  affection,  thought,  and  power  exist/ 
in  a  far  higher  degree  than  in  ourselves ;  and  we  go 
forward  until  we  think  that  they  exist  in  God  with 
out  limit  and  without  qualification.  And  then,  as 
our  idea  of  God  enlarges,  we  attribute  to  this  One 
the  creation  and  the  government  of  the  universe. 
They  who  now  with  most  success  are  investigating 
the  earliest  forms  of  human  thought  and  belief  find 
much  indication  that,  in  ages  so  remote  that  but 
faint  intimations  of  their  characteristics  have  come 
down  to  us,  this  first  and  simplest  idea  of  God  pre 
vailed. 

It  is  very  common  for  writers  on  these  subjects  to 
object  strongly  to  all  "Anthropomorphism,"  as  they 
call  all  effort  to  construct  the  idea  of  God  out  of  our 


76  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

idea  of  man.  I  have  no  fear  of  this  word.  It  is  a 
wrongful  anthropomorphism  which  would  degrade 
and  lessen  God  into  likeness  with  ourselves.  It  is  a 
rightful  anthropomorphism  which  seeks  most  ear 
nestly  to  rise  into  a  likeness  to  God.  If  He  were 
altogether  other  than  we  are  and  in  all  respects  that 
which  we  are  not,  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to 
form  any  idea_of_Him,  or  have  any  knowledge  of 
Him,  or  any  faith  in  Him,  or  any  affection  for  Him. 
And  this  is  precisely  the  result  to  which  some  are 
led  by  their  dread  of  likening  God  to  man.  It  is 
because  He  has  made  us  in  His  image  and  likeness, 
that  every  religious  man  —  of  every  name,  or  age, 
or  faith,  consciously  or  unconsciously  —  regards  the 
growth  in  resemblance  to  his  Father  as  the  measure 
of  all  progress  and  the  goal  of  all  good  life. 

They  who  thus  fear  and  dislike  anthropomorphism 
are  wrong  in  so  far  that  it  is  impossible  to  construct 
the  idea  of  God  out  of  any  other  elements  than 
those  which  consciousness  gives  us.  But  they  are 
right  in  denouncing  it  as  open  to  great  danger.  It 
is  the  spiritual  faculties  given  us  for  that  purpose, 
and  taught  and  aided  by  Revelation,  which  so  con 
struct,  out  of  the  elements  given  us  primarily  by 
consciousness,  this  idea  of  God.  It  is  only  the  spir 
itual  faculties  which  can  give  us  this  idea.  But  then 
the  natural  faculties  receive  it,  and  afterwards  will 


THE    IDEA    OF    GOD. 


77 


be  heard  about  this  idea ;  and  they  will  do  their  own 
work  upon  it.  And  unless  they  acknowledge  their 
absolute  subordination  to  the  higher  faculties  and 
bear  a  true  allegiance  to  them,  they  can  say  no  word 
on  these  subjects  that  is  not  false,  and  can  do  no 
work  upon  this  idea  of  God  that  is  not  mischievous. 
Therefore  it  was  that  the  natural  faculties,  qualities, 
and  proclivities  of  men  laid  hold  of  this  idea,  and 
burdened  and  distorted  it  with  fantasies  and  idol 
atries  of  every  description.  But  the  spiritual  part 
of  man  neither  slumbered  nor  died.  It  worked, 
however  impeded  and  fettered,  for  the  salvation  of 
men.  It  could  not  cast  off  the  monstrous  lies  and 
follies  which  the  natural  part  of  man  devised  and 
loved.  But  even  in  them  it  did  what  good  it  could. 
And  far  better  was  it  and  is  it  for  man  to  worship 
all  the  Gods  or  idols  of  superstition,  or  the  sun  and 
stars,  or  stocks  and  stones,  than  to  have  no  God, 
and  no  sense  of  worship.  For  one  who  passes  into 
the  other  world  with  no  sense  of  worship,  is  to  the 
last  degree  unprepared  for  that  heaven  where  life  is 
worship ;  and  worship  is  the  expression  of  love  to 
God ;  and  the  love  of  the  neighbor  is  born  from  love 
to  God,  and  manifests  itself  in  constant  usefulness. 

The  Bible  tells  us  that  God  made  man  in  His  own 
image  and  after  His  own  likeness.  This  is  much 
worse  than  nothing  to  those  who  deny  the  sanctity 


78  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

and  authority  of  the  Bible.  They  call  it  a  false 
hood  springing  from  the  tendency  of  the  human 
mind  to  liken  God  to  man.  And  because  they  deem 
it  a  falsehood  they  argue  from  it  against  the  author 
ity  of  the  Bible.  But  is  this  tendency  always  and 
altogether  mistaken  ?  One  answer  is,  that  it  is  in 
evitable  ;  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of  our  nature. 
Other  answers  will  be  given  as  we  go  on. 


OF   THE    GKOWTH    OF    THE    IDEA   OF    GOD. 

We  have  seen  what  constitutes  the  primary  and 
the  simplest  idea  of  God.  Let  us  try  to  see  what 
more  the  spiritual  faculties,  using  the  instruction  of 
Revelation,  and  unimpeded  by  the  natural  faculties, 
and  helped  by  them  so  far  as  that  may  be,  can  do 
for  this  idea. 

We  shall  see  that  all  there  is  in  man  that  is  not 
material  belongs  either  to  what  he  loves  or  desires, 
or  else  to  what  he  thinks  and  knows  ;  and  we  may 
give  to  the  whole  complex  of  all  affections,  desires, 
or  motives,  the  name  of  Will  ;  and  we  may  give  to 
the  whole  complex  of  all  thought  and  intellectual 
process  or  conditions  the  name  of  Understanding. 

We  have  seen  that  only  by  exalting  them  to  the 
utmost,  and  taking  from  them  limit  or  qualification, 
do  we  form,  by  our  spiritual  faculties,  an  idea  of 


GROWTH   OF    THE    IDEA   OF    GOD.  79 

God.  The  simplest  name  to  give  to  this  first  and 
simplest  idea,  is  that  of  a  Divine  Man.  But  the 
spiritual  faculties,  by  which  we  construct  this  idea, 
then  using  the  instruction  of  Revelation,  help  us 
to  protect  and  preserve  it  from  the  errors  and  fal 
lacies  which  the  natural  faculties  would  cast  upon 
it.  And  holding  it  in  its  purity,  they  go  on  to  give 
to  this  idea  distinctness  and  extension ;  and  they 
develop  such  further  ideas  as  grow  out  of  this  idea, 
under  their  influence. 

They  begin  with  guarding  this  idea  from  the  fal 
lacies  of  sense  and  natural  faculty.  They  assert  a 
Divine  Man.  He  is  their  God.  But  they  deny  to 
Him  shape,  or  any  of  the  limitations  without  which 
the  natural  faculties  cannot  take  one  step  in  any 
direction. 

They  deny  to  Him  shape,  or  local  form  or  pres 
ence.  But,  if  they  do  this,  how  can  they  retain  any 
idea  whatever  of  God  as  a  Divine  Man  ?  The  natu 
ral  faculties  certainly  cannot ;  but  can  the  spiritual 
faculties  ? 

In  the  first  place,  let  it  be  said,  and  remembered, 
that  the  spiritual  faculties,  unless  grievously  per 
verted,  are  humble.  They  know  their  own  feeble 
ness,  their  own  immaturity,  their  own  limitations. 
They  know  the  infinitude  of  truth.  They  know  that 
it  must  come  to  us  and  be  seen  by  us  only  gradually ; 


80  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

and  that,  come  as  it  may  to  any  beings  anywhere,  it 
must  so  come,  that,  when  its  infinitude  is  remem 
bered,  it  is  seen  to  come  only  little  by  little.  They 
know  that,  as  there  is  no  limit  to  the  possible 
progress  of  truth,  so  there  is  no  limit  to  the  possible 
advance  of  their  capacity  to  see  and  comprehend 
the  truth,  however  feeble  the  beginning.  They 
know  that  it  would  be  the  worst  of  follies  to  cast 
off  or  doubt  a  truth  they  do  see,  because  around 
it  lie  difficulties  or  present  impossibilities,  which  do 
not  throw  them  backwards,  but  only  point  out  the 
forward  path  which  their  future  progress  is  to 
pursue. 

IX.     GOD   AN   INFINITE    PEKSON. 

An  Infinite  Person.  The  difficulty  lies  in  recon 
ciling  these  two  words,  or  the  ideas  they  express. 
But  the  higher  faculties  look  to  the  higher  things  in 
man.  They  look  to  his  affections  and  his  thoughts ; 
for  these  constitute  the  man.  The  body  is  adventi 
tious  ;  it  is  his  instrument,  not  himself.  Changing  its 
substance  every  day,  and  indeed  with  every  breath, 
it  is  no  essential  part  of  the  abiding  individual  man. 
It  is  not  of  the  essence  of  the  Person.  We  can 
know  each  other  only  in  the  body,  because  that  is 
the  covering  and  instrument  of  our  senses.  But 
what  we  know,  unless  our  knowledge  is  very  super- 


GOD    AN   INFINITE    PERSON.  81 

ficial,  is  the  man  within  the  body.  Our  habit  of 
looking  only  at  and  thinking  much  of  the  body,  and 
of  getting  access  to  the  person  only  through  the 
body,  makes  it  difficult  for  us  to  think  of  God  as 
man,  and  yet  not  think  of  Him  as  in  a  body  as  we 
are.  And  while  the  higher  faculties  are  controlled  or 
importantly  affected  by  the  lower  faculties,  it  is 
impossible  to  do  this ;  and  hence  the  old  mytholo 
gies  and  idolatries.  But  these  higher  faculties,  in 
the  degree  in  which  they  are  liberated  from  the 
influence  of  the  lower  faculties,  see  clearly  that  this 
difficulty  belongs  to  them  and  not  to  the  object  of 
thought.  And  being  sure  that  He  is  a  Divine  Per 
son,  and  thankful  for  this  certainty,  they  wait  with 
hope  and  patience  for  the  gradual  increase  of  their 
capacity  to  conceive  of  Him  adequately :  sure  also 
that,  while  this  increase  will  be  constant  and  eternal, 
it  will  never  enable  the  finite  fully  to  comprehend 
the  Infinite,  as  it  is  in  Itself. 

The  higher  faculties  are  employed  upon  affections 
and  thoughts ;  and  these  are  beyond  the  scope  of 
Space  and  Time.  And  while  they  acknowledge  the 
difficulty  ol  thinking  without  reference  to  Space 
and  Time,  they  know  that  a  reference  to  them  of 
things  or  thoughts  which  do  not  belong  to  them 
causes  error,  and  against  this  error  they  are  on  their 
guard. 


82  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

God  is  a  Divine  Person ;  a  Divine  Man ;  consist 
ing  of  Love  and  Wisdom,  both  without  limit,  and 
this  Love  is  infinitely  active  and  productive  through 
this  Wisdom.  Here  then  are  infinite  love,  infinite 
wisdom,  and  infinite  activity  or  power.  Taking 
with  us  this  idea  of  God,  let  us  now  ask  what  are 
the  relations  between  this  God  and  Man.  Nor  can 
we  answer  this  question  except  in  the  degree  in 
which  we  can  account  for  and  explain  Existence 
and  the  Laws  of  Existence. 

God  is  a  Person,  of  or  possessing  infinite  Love. 
What  is  Love?  What  it  is  in  its  perfection 
and  infinitude  we  cannot  completely  know.  Nor 
can  we  know  any  thing  about  it  except  by  that 
analogy  to  man  to  which  we  are  compelled  to  refer 
continually.  Of  what  love  is  in  man  we  know  some 
thing.  We  know  this.  That  love  desires  to  do 
good  to  its  object,  and  make  its  object  happy.  It  is 
in  its  fulness  in  God.  It  must  be  in  Him  an  infinite 
desire  to  make  others  happy.  It  must  be  in  Him 
an  infinite  desire  to  have,  and  that  He  may  have,  to 
create,  those  whom  He  -may  make  happy.  This, 
then,  is  the  final  cause  of  creation.  And  it  must 
also  be  the  final  cause,  or  the  constant  rule  and 
guide,  of  this  Love  in  the  government  of  the  world 
which  it  has  created.  Here  then  we  take  our  stand 
upon  a  simple  truth  which  must  be  appreciable  to 


GOD    AN    INFINITE    PERSON.  83 

all ;  and  which  has  in  it  nothing  of  novelty,  for  the 
higher  faculties  have  always  suggested  it ;  and  it 
presents  nothing  of  difficulty  to  those  faculties, 
although  meaningless  and  mere  nothing  to  the  lower 
faculties.  This  truth  is,  that  God  creates  and  gov 
erns  the  universe,  that  He  may  satisfy  His  own 
Infinite  Love. 

Let  us  take  one  step  farther.  Love  desires  to 
make  its  objects  happy.  In  its  fulness  it  desires  to 
give  all  it  can,  to  give  itself,  all  it  is  and  has,  to  the 
beloved  object.  Love  is  in  its  fulness  in  God.  He 
then  desires  to  give  all  He  can,  Himself  and  all  He 
is  and  has,  to  the  objects  of  His  Love.  He  must 
desire  to  create  them  such  that  He  may  impart  Him 
self  to  them.  Here  then  we  have  reached  a  truth 
which  will  guide  us  and  may  help  us  in  all  inquiries 
as  to  the  purposes  and  the  methods  of  divine  crea 
tion  and  government.  It  is  not  so  simple  as  the 
former  truth.  But  we  believe  it  to  be  intelligible ; 
and  that  it  will  be  seen  to  be  true  by  those  to  whom 
it  commends  itself. 

This  truth,  stated  as  well  as  I  can,  is,  that  God 
creates  and  governs  the  universe,  that  He  may  have 
objects  of  His  love,  to  whom  He  may,  in  the  degree 
in  which  it  is  possible,  impart  Himself  and  His  own 
happiness. 

It  may  be  well  to  remember  that  if  God  be  Love, 


84  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

or  if  He  have  love,  He  must  desire  to  give  hap 
piness  to  those  whom  He  loves.  But  His  own  hap 
piness  must  be  full  and  perfect.  We  cannot  think 
otherwise.  There  can  then  be  no  happiness  more 
than  his,  or  other  than  his ;  for  then  it  would  be 
wanting  to  or  absent  from  a  happiness  which  being 
perfect  can  have  no  want.  He  must  then  desire  to 
impart  of  His  own  happiness  to  the  objects  of  His 
love.  Now  what  is  His  happiness;  what  does  it 
consist  of;  what  does  it  flow  from  ?  Here,  as  else 
where,  in  thinking  of  the  Infinite  Divine,  we  may 
exercise  the  powers  given  us,  upon  the  truths  given 
us,  that  we  may  know  Him ;  and,  feeble  and  imma 
ture  as  these  powers  may  be,  they  may  give  us  at 
least  some  elementary  knowledge  of  Him,  which, 
however  little  it  is,  may  yet  be  sound  and  just.  To 
the  question,  What  is  the  happiness  of  God?  we 
answer,  that  it  must  be  that  of  Love,  exerted 
through  Wisdom,  in  Effect ;  that  is,  in  use  or  work, 
which  work  is  the  creation  and  support  of  the 
universe.  Then  it  would  follow,  necessarily,  that 
this  is  the  happiness  He  must  desire  to  give  to  men. 
And  this  truth  will  be  commended  to  us,  when  we 
see  that  it  offers  an  explanation  of  the  constitution 
of  man  and  of  the  universe  which  is  his  home.  We 
find  that  man,  forgetting  for  the  moment  his  body, 
consists  of  Will  and  Understanding.  And  why? 


GOD    AN    INFINITE    PERSON.  85 

Because  God  creates  in  him  a  Will,  as  a  recipient 
of  His  own  Love ;  and  creates  it  such  a  recipient, 
that  it  may  receive  into  itself  Divine  Love,  and  that 
the  Love  so  received  may  become  all  there  is  in 
man  of  affection,  desire,  or  motive  power.  He 
also  creates  in  man  an  Understanding  as  a  re 
cipient  of  His  own  Wisdom,  and  such  a  recipient 
that  this  Wisdom  becomes  therein  all  there  is 
in  man  of  thought,  perception,  or  reason.  But 
this  is  not  all.  The  Divine  happiness  does  not 
consist  merely  in  the  possession  of  Love  and  Wis 
dom,  but  in  the  activity  and  productiveness  of  the 
Love  through  the  Wisdom.  This,  too,  is  infinite 
and  constant;  and  the  universe  is  its  continual 
Effect.  In  whatsoever  is,  from  the  smallest  grain  or 
cell,  and  far  below  this,  from  the  primary  atoms  or 
elements  of  matter,  up  through  suns  and  earths  and 
systems,  everywhere  the  Love  of  God,  in  His  Wis 
dom,  is  ever  creating,  producing,  governing,  sus 
taining.  This  is  His  infinite  activity,  and  from  it 
His  happiness.  He  desires  to  give  of  this  to  man. 
And  therefore  He  clothes  man's  will  and  under 
standing  with  a  body,  as  He  clothes  His  own  Love 
and  Wisdom  with  the  universe.  He  makes  man's 
body  such  (a  natural  body  here,  a  spiritual  body 
hereafter)  that  all  there  is  in  him  of  affection  or 
desire  may,  through  his  thought,  act,  produce,  and 


86  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

be  of  use.  And  all  this  use  or  work  of  man,  miser 
ably  feeble  almost  to  nothingness  as  it  is,  wherever 
it  has  any  existence  whatever,  and  so  far  as  it  is  not 
polluted  by  selfishness  which  is  the  opposite  of  love, 
is  in  the  image  and  the  likeness  of  the  infinite  use 
fulness  of  God. 

X.     MAN   IS   IMMORTAL. 

This  explanation  of  the  constitution  of  man  may 
suggest  many  questions.  One  of  them  is  this :  How 
can  we  suppose  that  the  very,  very  feeble  reception 
by  man  of  the  divine  love,  wisdom,  and  usefulness, 
and  happiness  thence,  can  satisfy  the  infinite  desire 
and  purpose  of  God  ?  We  cannot,  unless  we  sup 
pose,  farther,  that  man  is  immortal ;  that  he  lives 
through  eternity;  and  that  he  is  made  capable  of 
growing  in  love,  in  wisdom,  and  in  usefulness  and 
happiness,  through  eternity. 

But,  limiting  our  thoughts  at  present  to  this  life, 
another  question  may  be  this :  If  all  of  man's  love, 
wisdom,  and  usefulness  are  God's  love,  wisdom,  and 
usefulness  in  him,  where  does  his  hatred,  his  folly, 
his  selfishness,  his  wrong-doing,  come  from?  How 
does  love,  proceeding  from  God,  become  in  man  ha 
tred  ;  how  does  divine  wisdom  become  human  folly, 
and  divine  usefulness  human  mischief  ? 


HUMAN    SELFHOOD.  87 

The  answer  to  this  question  must  reveal  the  very 
heart  of  all  that  we  can  know  of  the  relations  be 
tween  God  and  man. 

That  answer  is,  that  God  gives  life  to  man,  by 
giving  His  own  life  to  man,  to  become  in  man  MAN'S 
OWN  LIFE,  his  own,  his  selfhood. 

This  is  a  truth  very  liable  not  to  be  understood 
at  all,  and  to  seem  wholly  unintelligible,  or  to  be 
misunderstood.  It  is  a  truth,  but  only  one  of 
two  truths  which  together  make  a  whole.  The 
other  truth  is,  that  the  whole  of  man's  life  is 
given  by  God,  of  His  own  life,  instantly,  inces 
santly,  always. 

The  whole  truth  is  new  on  earth.  I  do  not 
mean  that  I  have  discovered  it,  for  I  have  learned 
it.  But  it  has  been  delayed  until  the  human  mind 
was  in  some  readiness  to  receive  it.  It  is  now 
new  in  human  thought,  and  that  readiness  is  most 
imperfect. 

The  whole  truth,  stated  as  one,  may  have  this 
form.  Man  lives  because  there  is  a  continual 
flow  of  God's  life  into  him  to  become  man's  own 
life. 

My  endeavor  now  will  be  to  explain  this  truth ; 
for,  being  understood,  it  is  nothing  less  than  the  key 
to  the  mysteries  which  belong  to  the  relation  of 
God  to  man  and  of  man  to  God.  I  undertake  this 


THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

with  the  certainty  that  I  shall  do  it  imperfectly,  and 
with  the  fear  that  I  may  fail  to  place  this  truth 
within  the  reach  of  those  who  would  welcome  it. 
But  I  will  do  what  I  can. 

First,  then,  as  to  the  first  element  of  this  truth ; 
namely,  that  the  life  of  God  flows  into  man  contin 
uously  and  always.  He  did  not  impart  life  to  the 
father  of  the  race,  and  give  to  that  life  the  power  of 
independent  continuance  through  all  the  generations 
of  his  offspring.  He  did  not  give  life  to  each  one 
of  us  when  we  began  personally  to  be,  and  such  a 
life  as  would  abide  for  ever,  or  even  until  our  death, 
without  farther  gift  of  life.  But  at  the  first  moment 
of  each  one's  existence  He  gave  the  life  of  that  mo 
ment  ;  and,  at  every  succeeding  moment  either  in  this 
world  or  the  other,  He  gives  the  life  of  that  moment. 
I  am  obliged  thus  to  speak  of  succession,  and  con 
tinuity,  and  moments.  And  yet  the  spi ritual  facul 
ties,  by  which  alone  we  can  form  or  approach  an  idea 
of  the  Infinite,  must  be  feebly  exercised  if  they  do 
not  assure  us  that  with  God  there  is  no  Time.  That 
belongs  to  us.  Eternity  is  something  more  than  a 
mere  indefinite  aggregation  of  time.  What  it  is  we 
cannot  adequately  know,  because  while  we  are  here 
our  minds  cannot  wholly  escape  the  controlling 
influence  of  Time  and  Space.  Neither  can  we  ade 
quately  conceive  of  a  personal  existence  without 


HUMAN    SELFHOOD.  89 

Time.  But  we  can  detect  and  avoid  the  errors 
which  come  into  our  mind  when  we  connect  the 
ideas  of  Space  and  Time  with  that  which  we  must 
know  to  be  independent  of  them.  When  we  say 
that  God  exists  independently  of  time,  we  may  not 
be  able  to  conceive  adequately  how  this  is,  or  can  be. 
But  we  may  be  able  to  detect  and  avoid  the  error 
and  the  obstruction  to  thought  caused  by  the  influ 
ence  of  this  idea  of  Time  when  we  connect  it  with 
the  idea  of  God. 

It  is  one  of  those  errors  to  impute  a  past  or  future 
to  God,  as  He  is  in  Himself.  What  He  did,  He  does. 
He  did  not  give,  and  stop  giving.  He  gave  and  is 
giving.  We  may  formulate  this  by  saying  that 
existence  is  perpetual  subsistence.  We  subsist  from 
God,  and  from  His  gift  of  Being  to  us.  We  exist 
continuously  because  we  continue  so  to  subsist  from 
Him. 

This  is  a  hard  doctrine.  What  is  more  common 
than  the  notion  that  every  man  has  at  birth  a  certain 
measure  of  vitality,  and,  if  his  life  be  not  cut  short 
by  disease  or  casualty,  he  will  live  on  through  the 
periods  of  growth  and  decay,  and  die,  sooner  or 
later,  when  that  vitality,  be  it  less  or  more,  is  ex 
hausted  ?  There  may  be  so  much  of  truth  in  this  as 
to  the  body,  as  can  be  found  in  the  fact  that  this 
body  is  weaker  or  stronger  as  inheritance  or  other 


90  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

circumstances  may  determine,  and  will  continue  for 
a  longer  or  a  shorter  time  to  be  the  clothing  and 
instrument  of  the  man.  But  Time,  the  word  and 
the  thought,  belong  only  to  the  body  and  its  world, 
and  to  the  faculties  employed  upon  them.  They 
have  no  reference  whatever  to  the  man  himself,  or 
to  his  soul.  This  will  not  die.  But  from  the  mo 
ment  it  begins  to  live  through  its  unending  life,  it 
lives  by  instant  and  incessant  communication  of  life 
from  the  only  Source  of  life.  Every  affection  or 
feeling  or  emotion,  every  thought  and  whatever 
pertains  to  thought,  comes  to  him,  then,  when  it 
exists.  It  comes  to  him  as  life,  modified  by  the 
instruments  through  which  it  passes  and  the  method 
of  transmission,  and  is  thus  exquisitely  adapted  to 
become  and  constitute  his  life. 

Then,  when  I  recur  to  the  second  of  the  two 
propositions  which  constitute  the  truth  I  have  stated 
above,  —  when  I  say  that  this  divine  life  is  given  to 
man  to  become  and  be  his  own,  perfectly  his  own, 
his  very  self,  I  state  a  still  harder  doctrine. 

Because  man's  life  coming  to  him  from  God  is 
given  to  him  to  be  his  own,  he  has  power  over  him 
self,  a  power  of  self-determination,  which,  as  to  all 
spiritual  things,  and  all  that  belongs  to  his  spiritual 
character  and  destiny,  is  complete  and  perfect. 

He  has  freedom,  because  his  life  is  his  own.     This 


OF   FREEDOM.  91 

freedom  no  more  originates  in  him  than  does  his  life. 
It  is  his,  because  it  is  given  to  him.  It  is  his,  because 
it  is  given  to  him  with  life ;  and  it  is  given  to  him 
with  life,  because  it  is  an  element  of  life.  It  is  his, 
because  life  is  given  to  him  in  such  wise  that  he 
cannot  but  be  free;  he  must  be  free  for  the  very 
reason  that  his  life  is  given  to  him  to  be  absolutely 
his  own,  and  in  that  life  is  freedom. 

XI.    OF   FREEDOM. 

The  idea  of  freedom  is  one  of  the  primitive  ideas 
of  consciousness,  and  is  in  itself  so  simple  that  no 
one  doubts  what  freedom  is  until  he  begins  to  con 
fuse  and  obscure  his  thoughts  by  the  effort  to  make 
that  plainer  which  is  in  itself  perfectly  plain.  We 
define  any  thing,  or  describe  it,  by  referring  to  plainer 
and  simpler  thoughts  or  truths,  and  asking  them  to 
cast  their  light  over  the  thought  or  thing  to  be  de 
fined.  But  freedom  cannot  be  thus  defined,  for  the 
very  reason  that  it  is  itself  the  plainest  and  simplest 
thought.  We  know  what  freedom  is,  also,  by  the 
checks  and  limitations  to  it,  as  we  know  what  light 
is  by  darkness.  In  physical  matters  these  limitations 
are  constant  and  universal.  While  every  man  has 
something  of  physical  freedom,  no  man  has  all.  So 
it  is  with  natural  freedom,  which  is  above  mere 


92  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

physical  freedom,  and  distinguished  from  it  by  in 
cluding  all  the  freedom  we  have  in  the  exercise  of 
all  our  natural  faculties,  whether  intellectual  or 
affectional. 

Here,  too,  freedom  is  always  limited  and  qualified. 
The  reason  is,  that  as  temporary  life  on  earth  is 
given  as  a  means  of  preparing  for  the  unending  life 
that  comes  afterwards,  so  all  our  natural  faculties  are 
given  us  to  be  used  as  the  instruments  of  our  spirit 
ual  faculties  in  this  work ;  and  all  our  merely  phys 
ical  and  natural  faculties  are  restrained  in  their  use 
and  exercise  so  far  as  may  be  required  by  the  end  for 
which  all  are  given.  This  end  is  spiritual  prepara 
tion,  and  it  is  placed  in  man's  power.  Not  one  par 
ticle  can  he  do  of  it  or  for  it,  but  by  the  exercise  of 
the  spiritual  life  and  power  given  him  for  this  end. 
But  this  work  can  be  done  as  it  is  intended  that  it 
should  be  done,  and  as  the  highest  happiness  possible 
for  us  requires  that  it  should  be  done,  only  by  man's 
co-operation,  and  only  when  man  in  the  exercise  of 
his  spiritual  freedom  does  his  part  of  the  work. 
Therefore  is  his  spiritual  freedom  free  from  the  lim 
itations  which  belong  to  his  natural  and  physical 
faculties.  And  only  by  the  spiritual  faculties  can 
spiritual  freedom  be  judged  of,  or  made  use  of,  or 
even  recognized  as  existing. 

Very  few  topics  have  been  the  subject  of  more 


OF   FREEDOM.  93 

earnest  reasoning  and  speculation  than  that  of 
human  freedom;  but  to  very  little  purpose.  Only 
the  lower,  only  the  natural  faculties  have  been,  for 
the  most  part,  brought  into  action  in  relation  to  this 
subject.  And  the  body  has  but  little  freedom.  Man 
goes  through  this  life,  as  to  all  his  lower  nature,  in 
fetters.  This  is  true  of  all  the  natural  faculties 
whose  proper  scope  is  the  body  and  its  home.  And, 
while  bound  and  shackled  by  these  fetters,  religious 
men  have  entered  into  these  questions,  and  some  of 
them  have  founded  religious  doctrines  upon  the 
views  which  their  natural  faculties  led  them  to  take 
of  spiritual  freedom.  For  it  is  just  as  possible  to 
bring  the  natural  faculties  to  bear  upon  the  spiritual 
topics  suggested  by  the  spiritual  faculties,  as  on  any 
other.  Unless  they  are  subordinated  to  and  directed 
by  the  spiritual  faculties,  they  do  not  change  their 
nature,  nor  their  method  of  working,  nor  the  charac 
ter  of  their  results,  when  they  are  employed  upon 
topics  higher  than  themselves.  They  have  no  apti 
tude  for  these  topics,  and  can  lead  only  to*  fallacy 
and  falsity  when  applied  to  them.  I  wish  it  were 
possible  for  me  to  present  this  truth  with  the  clear 
ness  which  belongs  to  it.  The  higher  and  the  lower 
faculties  coexist  in  every  man.  It  may  be  that 
there  are  those  in  whom  the  higher  faculties  are  al 
most  wholly  suppressed,  but  such  cases  must  be  rare. 


94  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

It  may  also  be  that  there  are  those  in  whom  the 
higher  faculties  refuse  all  fellowship  with  the  lower 
and  suppress  them  almost  utterly,  but  such  cases 
also  must  be  rare.  The  lower  faculties  can  of  them 
selves,  as  has  been  repeatedly  said,  teach  nothing, 
know  nothing,  think  nothing  about  God,  or  the  In 
finite.  The  higher  faculties  can  employ  themselves 
to  the  best  purpose  for  the  objects  they  may  reach, 
when  they  make  a  rightful  use  of  the  natural  facul 
ties  as  their  instruments ;  but  never  when  they  per 
mit  these  lower  faculties  to  bring  what  is  their  light 
as  to  natural  things,  but  their  darkness  as  to  spiritual 
things,  to  cloud  the  spiritual  faculties  in  their  inves 
tigation  of  spiritual  things,  and  distort  and  falsify 
their  conclusions.  And  yet  this  has  been  the  com 
monest  thing  in  the  history  of  thought  and  belief. 
Men  of  the  greatest  ability  have  devoted  themselves 
to  religious  inquiries,  but  have  brought  their  natural 
faculties  to  mingle  in  these  inquiries,  and  perhaps  to 
exercise  a  controlling  influence  therein.  A  reason 
for  this  has  sometimes  been  their  consciousness  of 
the  unusual  vigor  of  those  faculties  and  a  pride  in 
this  superiority,  and  when  in  their  religious  inquiries 
they  found  themselves  pushing  questions  into  the 
nature  of  the  infinite,  farther  than  the  spiritual  facul 
ties  were  able  to  answer  them,  they  resorted  to  the 
natural  faculties  to  work  out  for  them  some  scheme 


OF   FREEDOM.  95 

or  theory  which  should  at  least  seem  to  answer ;  and 
they  did  this  unconsciously,  because  they  did  not 
recognize  any  distinction  between  these  faculties. 
An  answer  to  such  questions  given  by  the  natural 
faculties  must  necessarily  be  mistaken.  It  may  well 
be  that  the  spiritual  faculties  cannot  now  give  a 
complete  answer,  and,  conscious  of  their  present  lim 
itations,  make  no  attempt  to  do  this.  But  the  natu 
ral  faculties  have  no  such  hesitation.  In  their  own 
way  they  construct  an  answer,  which,  because  it  is 
founded  upon  reasoning  which  is  only  true  in  its 
application  to  the  finite,  necessarily  misleads  when 
it  is  applied  to  the  Infinite. 

Let  me  take  an  illustration  from  this  matter  of 
freedom.  Calvin,  by  his  method  of  reasoning,  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  inconsistent  with  the 
being  and  government  of  God  that  man  should  have 
spiritual  freedom.  He  was  right  and  unanswerable 
on  his  own  grounds.  Man's  freedom  was  inconsist 
ent  with  the  being  and  government  of  Calvin's  God. 
Because  the  idea  of  God  suggested  by  the  spiritual 
faculties  was  surrendered  to  the  natural  faculties, 
and  therefore  his  God  was  one  whose  being  and 
character  were  measured  and  defined  by  the  natu 
ral  faculties.  The  perfect  proof  of  this  is  to  be 
found  in  his  doctrine  of  ^predestination,  or  election 
and  /preordination.  For  this  idea,  and  the  whole 


96  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

argument  by  which  it  is  supported,  become  nothing, 
when  we  refuse  to  attribute  man's  time  to  God.  For 
if  we  refuse  to  attribute  time  to  God,  we  shall  no 
longer  speak  of  any  thing  in  Him  as  before  or  after. 
Very  little  reasoning  suffices  to  satisfy  us  that  time 
cannot  be  an  entity ;  that  it  is  but  a  method  of  per 
ception,  or  result  of  intuition,  or  a  law  of  thought. 
What,  then,  must  be  the  result  of  reasoning  founded 
upon  making  that  which  belongs  to  man  only,  and 
his  way  of  viewing  things,  a  positive  fact  in  itself 
and  of  the  very  essence  of  the  infinite  God  ? 

So  too  with  Jonathan  Edwards.  Let  not  one  jot 
of  the  credit  due  for  extraordinary  power  of  intel 
lect  be  denied  him.  But  the  intellect  has  its  natural 
powers  as  well  as  its  spiritual  powers;  and  when 
Edwards  reasoned,  whatever  might  be  his  topics,  he 
exerted  the  natural  powers  which  in  him  had  great 
vigor,  and  he  did  not  subordinate  them  to  his  spir 
itual  faculties.  Both  Calvin  and  he,  after  asserting 
and  maintaining  with  all  their  might  predestination 
and  the  absence  of  human  freedom,  then  labored 
strenuously  to  reconcile  this  fallacy  with  human 
duty  and  responsibility.  But  they  labored  wholly 
in  vain.  Words  may  assert  any  thing.  A  man  may 
say  that  he  believes  black  to  be  white ;  but  he  does 
not  believe  this,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  simply  im 
possible  to  think  so.  If  a  man  really  believes  that 


OF   FREEDOM.  97 

Omnipotence  decreed  before  he  was  born  that  he 
should  go  to  heaven  or  to  hell,  he  cannot  believe 
that  by  any  act  or  effort  of  his  own  he  can  change 
his  destiny. 

And  now  it  may  be  asked  whether  when  we  say 
that  the  spiritual  faculties  assure  us  that  time,  or  its 
incidents,  effects,  or  conclusions,  can  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  Eternal  and  Infinite,  we  say  also  that 
these  faculties  can  teach  us  how  the  Eternal  thinks, 
knows,  and  acts  without  time.  Certainly  not.  What 
they  can  do  is  to  protect  us  from  the  error  derived 
from  supposing  that  He  thinks  or  knows  in  time, 
and  under  the  conditions  of  time.  They  do  not 
reconcile  the  infinite  knowledge  of  God  with  man's 
freedom ;  but  they  show  us  that  no  reconciliation  is 
required,  because  it  is  only  our  lower  and  natural 
faculties  which  place  any  antagonism  between  His 
knowledge,  or  between  knowledge  as  it  must  be  in 
Him,  and  the  freedom  of  man.  They  show  us  that 
there  is  no  antagonism  except  between  our  finite 
mode  of  knowledge  indefinitely  enlarged  and  human 
freedom ;  and  that  His  mode  of  knowledge  is  not 
our  own  indefinitely  enlarged,  for  it  must  be  other 
than  our  own,  and  precisely  other  in  that  particular 
from  which  alone  comes  that  antagonism.  We 
cannot  think  as  He  thinks,  for  we  are  finite  and 
He  is  infinite.  But  well  may  we  keep  our  faith 
7 


98  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

and  trust  in  the  perfect  wisdom  which  foresees  all 
our  needs  and  perils,  and  provides  for  them.  It  is 
right  that  we  think  of  Him  and  speak  of  Him  thus, 
for  this  is  the  form  which  His  infinite  care  for  His 
creatures  puts  on  when  it  comes  down  within  those 
bonds  of  space  and  time  which  belong  to  us.  But 
let  us  not  lay  these  bonds  on  Him,  nor  argue  from 
them  as  if  they  belonged  to  His  own  essential  infin 
itude. 

The  spiritual  faculties  declare  that  they  cannot 
comprehend  the  mode  and  manner  of  infinite 
thought,  and  therefore  they  cannot  investigate  the 
compatibility  of  that  thought  with  human  freedom. 
They  are  certain  of  both  of  these  facts.  They  are 
certain  of  freedom  from  consciousness ;  and  this  con 
sciousness  is  confirmed  and  illustrated  by  ample  and 
powerful  reasons  and  considerations  drawn  from 
what  these  faculties  perceive  or  learn  concerning 
the  relation  of  God  to  man  and  of  this  life  to  the 
next.  They  are  certain  that  God  is  infinite,  and,  as 
He  must  possess  knowledge,  that  His  knowledge 
must  be  infinite.  Being  certain  of  these  two  facts, 
they  are  certain  that  in  some  way  they  are  compat 
ible  and  reconcilable;  but  that  they  cannot  be 
clearly  and  fully  seen  by  us  to  be  so,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  our  finite  faculties  cannot  have  clear  and 
full  and  adequate  perception  of  the  Infinite.  They 


OF   FREEDOM.  99 

are  certain  of  both  facts,  as  certain  of  the  one  as  of 
the  other,  and  therefore  certain  of  their  coexistence, 
although  this  may  be  to  a  large  extent  incomprehen 
sible  by  us  in  our  present  condition.  And  then  they 
are  equally  certain  that  all  denial  or  doubt  of  either 
of  these  facts,  and  all  disturbance  of  mind  from  the 
difficulty  of  reconciling  them,  must  be  caused  by 
the  efforts  of  the  natural  faculties  to  take  within 
their  inquiry  and  determination  questions  beyond 
their  reach  and  scope,  and  above  their  proper  func 
tions. 

Not  only  the  religious  men  I  have  mentioned 
and  many  others  have  dealt  with  this  question  on 
natural  grounds,  but  philosophers  have  gone  deeply 
into  it.  Some  of  them  have  come  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  there  could  not  be  in  the  nature  of  things 
any  such  thing  as  freedom.  The  main  argument 
which  has  led  to  this  conclusion  is,  as  has  been 
already  intimated,  that  every  effect  must  have  its 
cause ;  that  whatever  is,  is  the  effect  of  its  cause ; 
and  that  that  cause  could  not  but  produce  that  ef 
fect,  and  could  not  produce  any  other  effect.  Hence 
it  follows  that  whatever  we  feel,  or  think,  or  do,  had 
its  cause,  and  that  cause  its  cause,  and  so  through 
this  chain  of  causes  and  effects  the  result  we  know 
came  by  inevitable  sequence.  So  they  have  con 
cluded.  And  to  what  purpose?  None  whatever. 


100  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

They  never  produced  on  themselves  or  others  much, 
if  any,  actual  effect.  No  man  ever  lived  a  day  or 
an  hour  without  exercising  some  freedom,  and  know 
ing  that  he  exercised  it ;  for  every  man  is  more  sure, 
infinitely  more  sure,  that  he  nas  freedom,  than  he 
can  be  of  any  of  the  premises  on  which  any  such 
reasoning  rests.  Whence  comes  the  fatal  error  of 
this  reasoning?  It  has  been  already  said,  and  is 
now  repeated,  that  this  error  consists  in  utter  igno 
rance  of  the  distinctions  between  life  and  non-life. 
Of  things  without  life  the  natural  faculties  may 
judge,  and  the  reasoning  above  stated  has  much 
(though  but  a  qualified)  application  to  them.  But, 
when  we  come  to  consider  things  having  life,  the 
first  thing  we  must  know  is,  that  Freedom  is  an 
essential  element  of  Life.  There  can  be  no  freedom 
where  there  is  no  life ;  there  can  be  no  life  where 
there  is  no  freedom. 

XIL,      WHENCE    THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   FREEDOM? 

Whence  comes  this  consciousness,  this  certainty 
of  freedom  ?  In. the  first  place,  the  consciousness  of 
natural  freedom  belongs  to  the  natural  facilities. 
Then  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  freedom  belongs 
to  the  spiritual  faculties.  The  spiritual  faculties 
must  not  only  be  possessed  by  every  man,  but  we 


THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   FREEDOM.  101 

hold  that  they  must  have  some  life,  some  exercise  in 
him,  or  he  would  cease  to  be  more  or  other  than  a 
mere  animal.  And  man  is  not  permitted  to  sink  so 
low  as  this.  Animals  have  and  exercise  their  own 
measure  of  physical  freedom ;  but  they  do  not  know 
it,  because  they  cannot  have  the  idea,  or  conscious 
ness,  of  freedom.  This  they  cannot  have ;  but  man 
can  have  it,  and  cannot  but  have  it,  because  the 
consciousness  of  natural  freedom  belongs  to  the 
human  natural  faculties,  and  they  cannot  lose  it. 
And  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  freedom  belongs 
to  the  spiritual  faculties,  and  they  cannot  lose  it. 
This  is  so,  because  if  there  were  no  freedom  there 
would  be  no  duty,  and  no  responsibility ;  and  with 
out  some  sense  of  freedom  there  could  be  no  sense 
of  duty  or  responsibility.  And  no  living  man  was 
ever  absolutely  denuded  of  this  sense,  even  if  he 
thought  he  was. 

Without  some  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility, 
man  could  not  take  one  step  in  advance  from  his 
natural  condition.  Human  improvement  would  be 
impossible,  and  all  preparation  in  this  life  for  another 
would  be  impossible.  The  one  end  for  which  we 
begin  life  in  this  world  would  be  perfectly  defeated. 
That  this  may  not  be  so,  that  the  possibility  at  least 
of  this  improvement  may  always  be  open  to  all,  this 
consciousness  of  freedom  is  given  to  all,  and  pre- 


102  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

served  in  all  as  an  essential  and  an  abiding  element 
in  human  nature.  Hence,  I  repeat,  it  may  be  be 
lieved  that  no  man  anywhere  ever  lived  and  died, 
without  some  sense  of  duty  and  some  sense  of  re 
sponsibility.  It  is  too  plain  to  require  more  than 
the  mere  statement  already  made,  that,  if  there  were 
absolutely  no  freedom  whatever,  there  could  be  no 
duty  whatever,  and  no  responsibility.  And  it  must 
be  equally  certain  that,  if  there  were  no  sense  of 
freedom,  there  could  be  no  sense  of  duty;  for  the 
idea  or  thought  of  duty  implies  as  its  necessary  pre 
requisite  some  consciousness  of  freedom. 

We  may  go  farther.  The  sense  of  duty  and  re 
sponsibility  not  only  requires  the  consciousness  of 
freedom,  but  will  be  measured  as  to  strength  and 
quality  and  character  by  this  consciousness.  The 
natural  faculties  of  man,  in  so  far  as  they  are  higher 
than  those  of  the  mere  animal,  suggest  to  him  the 
consciousness  of  freedom,  and  keep  it  alive.  But 
they  limit  this  consciousness  within  the  bounds 
which  belong  to  these  faculties  and  their  exercise ; 
and  these  are  the  bounds  of  this  life  and  all  that 
belongs  to  it.  They  are  very  wide,  they  embrace 
all  the  relations  and  all  the  possibilities  of  this  life ; 
but  there  they  stop.  The  sense  of  natural  duty  and 
responsibility  is  conterminous  with  this  natural  con 
sciousness  of  freedom.  It  may  be  very  wide  in  its 


THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   FREEDOM.  103 

scope  and  working;  it  may  cover  all  the  relations 
and  possibilities  of  this  life ;  it  may  have  a  word  to 
say,  and  that  a  good  word,  whenever  any  question 
arises  from  any  relation  of  any  man  to  his  neighbor 
in  this  life.  It  may  command  purity  of  conduct, 
benevolence,  and  honesty ;  it  may  tend  to  produce 
quiet  and  order  and  mutual  assistance,  and  to  secure 
and  promote  all  the  comforfs  of  this  life.  But  there 
this  natural  sense  of  duty  stops :  it  goes  no  farther 
and  it  looks  no  farther.  There  have  been  instances  — 
not  many  perhaps,  but  still  instances  —  of  men  who 
displayed  all  these  virtues,  while  they  emphatically 
disclaimed  any  belief  in,  any  reference  to,  any  thought 
of,  God,  religion,  or  another  life. 

This  is  all  that  natural  duty,  founded  upon  natural 
consciousness  of  freedom,  can  do.  But  then  the 
higher  faculties,  the  spiritual  powers  of  man,  may 
awaken  their  consciousness  of  freedom  and  of  duty ; 
and  they  will  deal  with  it  very  differently. 

In  the  first  place,  to  them  it  is  a  consciousness  of 
spiritual  freedom.  They  look  upon  this  life  as  one 
of  preparation  and  education  for  another.  They 
look,  and  earnestly,  upon  this  world,  for  the  very 
reason  that  it  is  preparatory  and  instrumental  to 
another  world.  In  their  sight,  and  in  all  their  teach 
ing  and  all  their  influence,  the  other  life  is  primary. 
They  recognize  natural  goodness,  and  gladly  pro- 


104  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

mote  and  assist  it,  even  if  they  cannot  raise  it  to 
spiritual  goodness.  For  they  see  in  it  the  means  by 
which  men  may  in  some  measure  prepare  for  another 
life,  although  unconsciously,  and  with  no  wish  or 
purpose  of  the  kind  on  their  own  part.  And  this 
imperfect  preparation  is  made  possible  for  them, 
because  they  are  made  incapable  of  any  better  by 
their  unwillingness  to '"desire  any  better. 

But  when  spiritual  emotions  and  principles  gov 
ern,  or,  to  vary  the  phrase,  when  spiritual  ends  are 
sought,  then  justice,  love,  and  purity  are  transfig 
ured.  They  have  lost  no  strength,  no  tenderness, 
no  beauty ;  but  all  these  are  increased  a  thousand 
fold.  The  standard  of  all  excellence  is  infinitely 
higher,  and  the  motive  to  approach  it  infinitely 
stronger  and  more  effectual. 

Such  is  a  spiritual  view  of  freedom  and  a  spiritual 
use  of  freedom.  But  it  is  a  view  which  only  the 
spiritual  faculties  can  take ;  and  it  is  a  use  which 
only  the  spiritual  faculties,  intellectual  and  affec- 
tional,  can  make.  I  have  already  referred  to  Pro 
fessor  Huxley ;  and  I  may  well  do  so,  for  I  can  find 
nowhere  a  more  prominent  example  of  the  natural 
scientist  of  this  day.  In  an  address  recently  deliv 
ered  by  him  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa 
tion  of  Cambridge,  England,  he  speaks  of  freedom 
thus:  "I  protest  that  if  some  great  Power  would 


THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   FREEDOM.  105 

agree  to  make  me  always  think  what  is  true  and  do 
what  is  right,  on  condition  of  being  turned  into  a 
sort  of  clock  and  wound  up  every  morning  before  I 
got  out  of  bed,  I  should  instantly  close  with  the 
offer."  Now  these  few  words  show  plainly,  first,  that 
Professor  Huxley  is  conscious  of  possessing  Freedom, 
and  is  sure  of  it ;  and  that  he  is  also  conscious  that 
there  is  a  right  way  and  a  wrong  way  of  exercising 
this  freedom,  and  is  more  or  less  pained  by  the  con 
sciousness  that,  possessing  this  freedom,  he  does  not 
always  exercise  it  aright.  But  we  cite  this  passage 
mainly  to  say  that  it  seems  to  us  nothing  less  than 
marvellous  that  Professor  Huxley  does  not  see  that 
by  closing  with  this  offer  he  becomes  a  clock  and 
ceases  to  be  a  man ;  that  he  becomes  a  mechanism, 
and  man  is  not  a  mechanism.  Why  does  he  not  see 
that  freedom  is  an  element  of  human  life,  and  so  essen 
tial  an  element  of  human  life  that  where  it  is  wholly 
absent  life  is  in  no  sense  human  ?  We  can  account 
for  this  marvel  only  by  supposing  that  he  cannot 
see  this,  because  only  the  spiritual  faculties  can  dis 
cern  this  truth.  Spiritual  or  moral  freedom  is  this 
constant  and  necessary  element  of  human  life  for  a 
certain  purpose.  Only  the  spiritual  faculties  can 
discern  this  purpose,  only  they  can  promote  it;  for 
it  is  the  preparation  of  the  man  for  eternal  happiness 
bv  the  rightful  exercise  of  this  freedom.  Only  the 


106  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

spiritual  faculties  can  teach  him  or  can  help  him  to 
make  this  preparation ;  and  they  only  can  recognize 
the  truth  that  freedom  is  an  essential  element  of 
human  life,  because  they  only  can  recognize  the  pur 
pose  for  which  freedom  is  made  to  be  this  essential 
element. 

Personally  I  may  be  doing  great  injustice  to  Pro 
fessor  Huxley.  I  speak  only  of  what  he  says  to  the 
public.  And  I  am  glad  to  admit  that  he  says  to 
them  some  other  things  which  cannot  be  reconciled 
with  these. 

There  may  be  those  who  stand  at  either  extreme ; 
who  are  so  wholly  natural  that  nothing  of  spiritual 
life  is  in  their  thoughts,  or  who  are  so  far  spiritual 
that  merely  natural  emotions  or  purposes  have  no 
power  within  them.  But,  if  there  are  any  such,  they 
must  be  very  few.  In  most  men,  if  not  in  all  men, 
these  two  classes  of  faculties  or  feelings  mingle  their 
influence.  But  it  must  be  plain  that  these  higher 
faculties  will  be  strong  or  weak,  predominant  or 
subordinate,  wise  or  mistaken,  in  proportion  to  the 
clearness  of  view  with  which  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  of  all  spiritual  truth  are  seen,  and  to  the  force 
of  the  motives  which  are  founded  on  these  prin 
ciples.  And  none  of  these  lie  nearer  the  foundation 
of  all  truth  than  those  which  assert  the  fact  of  free 
dom,  and  disclose  its  origin  and  purpose,  and  then 


OF 

THE  CONSCIOUSNESS  OF 


v*  • 

throw  their  light  upon  the  law  of  fluty.     To  find 

these  principles  we  must  go  back  to  the  twofold 
doctrine  which  presents  two  truths,  but  forms  of 
them  one.  Of  these  two,  one  is  that  human  life  is 
divine  life  given  continuously  and  incessantly  to 
man.  The  second  is  that  this  divine  life  becomes 
man's  life  by  being  given  to  man  to  be  his  own,  and 
so  make  him  to  be  himself. 

These  truths  coalescing  into  one  become  the 
source  of  all  we  can  know  on  this  subject  of  life, 
freedom,  duty.  But  they  must  both  be  held  :  they 
must  be  so  united  that  the  one  suggests  the  other, 
and  refuses  to  be  seen  apart  from  it.  For,  if  either 
be  held  alone,  it  profits  us  little  and  exposes  us  to 
great  peril;  and  if  either  predominates  over  the 
other,  or  eclipses  the  other,  in  the  same  measure 
will  our  thoughts  on  all  these  subjects  be  distorted 
or  darkened.  To  believe  that  all  our  life  is  divine 
life  in  us,  and  to  believe  this  alone,  would  deliver  us 
up  to  many  and  gross  errors.  To  believe  that  our 
life  is  our  own,  in  the  sense  that  it  is  self-derived  and 
self-existent  and  independent  of  God,  would  lead  us 
to  more  and  if  possible  to  still  worse  errors.  But  if 
we  are  able  to  see  both  of  these  truths  clearly,  and 
to  see  them  as  one  truth,  and  then  to  see  why  man 
is  so  constituted,  we  are  restored  at  once  to  a  sense 
of  the  most  perfect  dependence  upon  God,  and  to 


108  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

an  equal  sense  of  freedom,  of  responsibility,  and  of 
duty. 

It  is  more  than  easy  for  a  man  to  believe  that  his 
life  is  his  own.  It  is  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible, 
to  believe  otherwise.  This  is  indeed  a  universal 
belief,  and  it  might  almost  be  said  a  universal  con 
sciousness.  Wherein  then  lies  the  importance  or 
the  novelty  of  this  doctrine  ?  It  lies  in  its  connec 
tion  with  the  belief  of  the  higher  truth,  that  he  lives 
by  constant  and  perpetual  reception  of  divine  life 
which  is  constantly  given  to  him. 

It  is  natural  to  man  to  believe  that  he  lives  from 
himself;  or  if  he  supposes  that  his  life  came  to  him 
from  his  parents,  then  to  believe  that  human  life 
originated  in  and  from  itself;  or  if  some  religious 
influence  leads  him  to  refer  the  beginning  of  human 
existence  to  God,  then  to  believe  that  it  was  given 
once  for  all,  and  that  each  man's  life  is  his  own 
share  of  this  common  property.  Either  of  these 
beliefs,  if  it  does  not  destroy  all  sense  of  dependence 
upon  God,  leaves  this  sense  imperfect  and  uncertain. 
Such  a  belief  that  man's  life  is  his  own  is  a  falsity, 
and  may  well  become  a  fatal  falsity.  It  has  a 
direct  and  a  strong  tendency  to  self-pride,  self-trust, 
self-love ;  and  these  are  the  sources  of  all  sin  and  all 
misery. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  belief  of  man's  entire  and 


THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    FREEDOM.  109 

constant  dependence  upon  God  has,  in  all  ages,  been 
carried  so  far  by  some  religious  men,  as  to  make 
man,  in  his  best  estate,  only  the  passive  instrument 
of  God ;  and  it  prescribes  to  man,  as  his  highest  duty 
and  his  highest  condition,  to  submit  himself,  without 
responsive  action  on  his  part,  to  the  divine  will  and 
the  divine  action. 

This  too  is  a  falsity ;  less  mischievous,  less  danger 
ous  than  the  other,  but  still  a  falsity.  It  is  harm 
ful  in  many  ways.  It  prostrates  the  man  before 
what  is  little  else  than  a  divine  fatality.  Its  com 
plete  surrender  of  all  selfhood  paralyzes  the  will,  and 
makes  a  healthy  activity  and  a  living  interest  in  the 
duties  of  life  impossible.  Such  may  be  its  effect  on 
those  who  succeed  in  this  surrender  of  selfhood. 
To  those  who  cannot  succeed  or  who  will  not  make 
the  attempt,  it  suggests  an  excuse  for  the  absence 
of  all  effort  to  grow  better.  It  says  to  them :  You 
are  in  the  hands  of  God,  let  Him  work  his  will  upon 
you.  Of  yourself  you  are  nothing.  If  it  be  His 
pleasure  to  make  you  good,  He  will  do  so,  and  you 
cannot  resist  Him.  Nor  can  you  if  it  be  His  pleas 
ure  to  leave  you  the  wicked  man  you  are,  or  let  you 
grow  worse.  If  he  who  is  good  has  nothing  to  do 
with  his  own  goodness,  surely  he  who  is  sinful  has 
nothing  to  do  with  his  own  sinfulness.  If  God  is 
all,  and  you  are  nothing,  what  have  you  to  do  but 
submit  to  your  destiny? 


110  THE    INFINITE   AND    THE    FINITE. 

Bring  the  two  truths  together,  and  we  are  safe. 
If  we  believe,  and  with  every  day  strengthen  our 
belief,  that  we  are  more  than  dependent  upon  God, 
that  we  live  from  Him  at  every  moment  of  our 
lives,  that  our  whole  life  and  every  thing  which  con 
stitutes  or  belongs  to  life  is  given  to  us  to  be  our 
own,  and  that  freedom,  as  an  element  of  that  life,  is 
given  us  to  be  our  own,  —  freedom  so  to  use  the  life 
thus  given  us  that  we  may  become  His  conscious, 
living,  willing,  and  active  instruments,  or  to  turn 
away  from  Him  and  pervert  and  abuse  our  life,  — 
then  shall  we  be  safe  from  the  danger  of  supposing 
that  we  live  from  ourselves,  and  from  the  other 
danger  of  supposing  our  salvation  from  sin  is  a  work 
wrought  for  us  with  no  need  of  co-operation  on  our 
parts. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  a  man  may  believe 
that  his  life  is  his  own,  which  are  exact  opposites 
of  each  other.  One  is  to  believe  that  human  life  is 
self-originated  and  independent.  The  other  is  to 
believe  that  it  is  our  own  by  the  constant  gift  of 
God.  The  first  is  false,  and  the  source  of  falsehood. 
The  other  is  true,  and  a  centre  from  which  truth 
radiates.  The  apostolic  command,  "  Work  out  your 
own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,  for  it  is 
God  who  worketh  within  you  both  to  will  and  to  do 
of  his  good  pleasure,"  can  be  understood  when  the 


THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    FREEDOM.  Ill 

light  of  this  truth  is  cast  upon  it.  The  word  "  for  " 
in  this  passage  might  better  be  translated  "be 
cause  : "  it  indicates  that  what  follows  this  word  is 
the  cause  or  reason  for  what  precedes  it.  But  is  it 
not  strange  that  we  are  required  to  do  a  work  our 
selves,  because  another  does  it  all  himself? 

It  is  of  the  will  of  God  and  His  good  pleasure  that 
all  men  should  be  saved.  To  that  end  He  causes 
His  own  life  to  enter  within  us.  It  comes  always 
and  precisely  so  qualified  and  modified  as  to  be  in 
perfect  adaptation  to  our  state  and  our  needs  at 
that  moment.  Thereafter  God  ever  worketh  within 
us  that  His  will  and  good  pleasure  may  be  carried 
into  effect.  Nothing  that  infinite  love  can  prompt,  or 
infinite  wisdom  devise,  or  infinite  power  do,  to  lead 
us  to  work  out  our  salvation,  is  omitted;  but  this 
limitation  remains  for  ever.  We  can  work  out  our 
salvation  only  because  He  worketh  within  us  to  en 
able  us  to  do  this.  And  He  can  work  within  us  only 
to  enable  us  to  work  out  our  own  salvation,  —  only 
to  enable  us  to  work  with  Him.  He  can  do  no 
more.  All  His  providence,  the  constitution  and 
ongoing  of  the  universe,  all  the  circumstances  of  our 
lives,  all  the  influences  which  are  caused  or  permit 
ted  to  act  upon  us,  the  greatest  and  the  least,  all 
are  governed  by  Him  to  this  end.  He  can  do  no 
more.  He  cannot  violate  this  law  of  human  free- 


112  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

dom,  because  this  law  is  but  the  method  by  which 
infinite  love  and  wisdom  seek  to  impart  to  man  the 
highest  good  and  the  greatest  happiness.  For  this 
must  ever  be,  the  choice  of  good  rather  than  evil, 
the  love  of  goodness  in  itself,  in  and  from  our  own 
actual  and  perfect  freedom. 

XIII.     OUR   LIFE    OUR   OWN   AND    YET    GOD'S   LIFE. 

We  cannot  advance  far  in  any  just  idea  of  God, 
without  seeing  that  He  must  be  alone  and  infinite. 
He  alone  can  have  life  in  Himself,  and  from  Him 
self.  All  life  but  His  must  be  derivative.  We  may 
perhaps  suppose  that  man  lives,  or  the  world  exists, 
because  He  commanded  them  to  be;  or,  in  other 
words,  that  He  created  them  by  His  will  out  of 
nothing.  This  question  has  already  been  consid 
ered,  and  may  be  again ;  and  the  reasons  more  fully 
given  for  the  statement  that  He  does  not  create  out 
of  nothing,  but  from  Himself.  If  He  is  infinite, 
there  must  be  a  sense  in  which  He  is  All ;  for  if 
there  be  any  thing  outside  of  Him  and  independent 
of  Him,  this  something  must  be  an  addition  to  or 
more  than  infinitude.  He  creates  from  Himself;  He 
creates  by  imparting  Himself.  He  makes  man  to 
be  a  living  man,  by  imparting  to  him  life  from  His 
own  Life.  When  this  truth  has  full  possession  of 


OUK   LIFE    OUR   OWN   AND    YET    GOD's    LIFE.      113 

the  mind  and  is  seen  in  all  its  clearness,  then  it  will 
be  seen  and  known  that,  at  every  instant  of  the  life 
of  every  man,  he  owes  the  life  of  that  instant,  be  it 
of  the  thought  or  of  the  will  or  of  the  body,  to  the 
life  of  God  flowing  into  him  at  that  instant. 

This  truth  has  no  claim  to  novelty.  When  it  is 
said,  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis,  that  "the 
Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground, 
and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and 
man  became  a  living  soul;"  and  when  Paul  says 
that  "in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being,"  and  the  apostles  in  the  Epistles  use,  as  they 
do  four  times,  the  phrase  that  God  is  "  all  in  all,"  it 
may  seem  to  be  implied  that,  in  some  way,  we  have 
our  being  because  God  imparts  to  us  His  being. 
But  I  would  present  this  truth  as  a  precise,  exact, 
and  absolute  truth ;  for  only  when  we  hold  it  so,  do 
all  its  momentous  consequences  follow.  Then  it 
would  be  impossible  for  us  to  live  for  a  moment  in 
the  belief  that  we  are  independent  of  God.  We 
should  feel  that  He  was  our  Father,  ns  we  could  not 
otherwise.  We  should  no  longer  believe  that  He 
gave  us  life  by  a  solitary  act  at  the  beginning  of  our 
being;  for  we  should  know  that  He  gave  it  to  us 
then,  and  gives  it  to  us  ever  since,  and  ever  since  as 
much  as  then.  From  such  a  conviction  as  this,  not 
only  the  sense  of  dependence  upon  Him,  but  the 


114  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

constant  thought  of  Him,  and  look  to  Him,  and 
regard  to  His  will,  in  all  the  hours  of  life,  would 
necessarily  derive  new  permanence  and  strength. 

This  is  the  good  it  would  do.  But  can  it  do 
no  harm  ?  Yes :  much  harm,  if  this  conviction 
stands  alone  in  our  minds.  As  has  been  already 
intimated,  it  might  generate  a  feeling  of  fatal 
ity,  a  sense  of  constant  subjection  to  overruling 
power.  It  would  intensify  our  sense  of  dependence 
upon  God  to  the  suppression  of  all  sense  of  depend 
ence  upon  ourselves,  or  of  responsibility  for  wrong 
doing.  It  would  give  into  the  hands  of  God  the 
whole  work  of  our  lives,  leaving  no  part  of  it  in  our 
own  hands.  It  would  make  of  us  the  mere  lifeless  in 
struments,  the  mere  channels  of  his  will.  Or  it  may 
exert  a  different  influence,  and  give  us  over  to  enthu 
siastic  self-conceit.  We  may  think  God  has  given  us 
His  own  life,  Himself;  nor  could  we  otherwise  live. 
What  more  can  we  want,  what  more  can  He  give  ? 
Are  we  not  as  God ;  are  we  not,  each  of  us,  a  God 
to  himself?  From  some  feeling  of  this  kind,  not 
exactly  defined  in  the  consciousness,  but  very  power 
ful,  and  never  more  powerful  than  now,  a  part  of 
existing  infidelity  has  arisen;  and  in  its  turn  it 
asserts  —  often  in  different  language  —  and  confirms 
the  fearful  falsity  that  man  is  sufficient  unto  him 
self. 


OUR    LIFE    OUK   OWN    AND    YET    GOD's   LIFE.       115 

x 

It  has  always  been  the  great  problem  of  religion 
to  reconcile  a  perfect  dependence  upon  God  with 
the  free  will  and  free  agency  of  man.  They  have 
not  been  reconciled.  Religious  men  looked  first 
and  most  at  this  dependence :  anxious  to  fasten  this 
belief  in  their  minds,  and  conscious  how  it  was 
dimmed  and  resisted  by  all  worldly  influences,  they 
seemed  to  care  for  nothing  else.  They  labored  to 
impress  upon  their  own  minds,  and  upon  their  hear 
ers,  this  truth  in  its  fullest  intensity.  The  Imitation 
of  Christ,  Law's  Serious  Call,  and  the  Theologia 
Gerinanica  —  three  most  excellent  and  most  useful 
books  —  carry  this  doctrine,  so  to  call  it,  to  the  last 
extreme.  The  last-named  expressly  declares  that 
the  last  good  of  human  possibility  is  to  be  "  the 
Lord's  Hand ; "  and  most  earnest  and  pathetic  elo 
quence  is  employed  in  the  effort  to  make  men  seek 
to  become  mere  unresisting  instruments  of  God, 
through  whom  He  can  do  his  work  with  nothing  of 
their  work  mingled  with  it. 

This  is  an  excess,  but  it  is  an  excess  of  a  good 
thing ;  and  it  is  an  excess  which  was  justified  and 
perhaps  made  necessary  by  the  perfect  antagonism 
between  the  truth  and  all  that  belongs  to  the  merely 
natural  man  when  that  revolts  against  the  spiritual. 
Hence  the  opposite  extreme  is  far  more  common. 
The  irreligious  man  considers  religion  as  slavery. 


116  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

He  feels,  and  all  these  ascetic  writings  seem  at  least 
to  justify  his  feeling,  that  religion  claims  not  only 
his  obedience,  not  merely  the  destruction  of  his 
freedom,  but  the  suppression  of  himself.  He  will 
have  none  of  it,  that  he  may  have  full  possession  of 
all  that  belongs  to  his  nature;  and  for  that  pur 
pose  he  vindicates  his  freedom  by  denying  his  God. 
Generally,  men  have  stood  somewhere  between 
these  extremes,  shifting  their  position  from  day  to 
day,  or  from  mood  to  mood ;  at  one  time  inclining 
more  to  their  sense  of  dependence  upon  God,  and  at 
another  to  their  desire  for  freedom  and  their  con 
sciousness  of  it,  always  going  to  either  by  leaving 
the  other,  and  never  seeking  to  reconcile  the  two 
into  unity. 

And  yet  this  can  be  done.  They  may  be  recon 
ciled  into  a  perfect  unity.  And  this  is  done  when 
we  hold  with  equal  clearness  and  certainty  the  two 
propositions  that  our  life  is  God's  life  always  and 
incessantly  given  to  us,  and  that  this  life  is  so  given 
that  it  becomes  and  is  in  us  our  own,  —  our  own 
life,  perfectly  our  own,  and  none  the  less  always 
and  constantly  God's  life  in  us.  It  is  given  to  be 
perfectly  our  own,  that  our  freedom  in  the  use  of 
it  may  be  perfect;  may  be  real,  and  not  apparent 
only.  It  is  still  our  Lord  and  Father  who,  in  His  ' 
infinite  Love  and  Wisdom,  so  gives  and  so  gov- 


OUR   LIFE    OUR   OWN   AND    YET    GOD'S   LIFE.      117 

erns  this  inflowing  life  in  every  particular  of  every 
life,  that  all  is  done  for  man  to  induce  him  and  to 
help  him  to  use  this  freedom  aright,  but  nothing  to 
impair  this  freedom. 

All  our  nature,  all  that  belongs  in  any  way  to 
our  natural  faculties  and  affections,  tells  us  that 
our  life  is  our  own.  In  this  it  does  not  tell  a  false 
hood.  But  it  tells  us  also  that  all  these  faculties 
and  affections,  with  all  the  life  they  constitute,  are 
self-originated ;  that  they  are  ours  by  the  inherent 
quality  of  our  nature ;  that  they  are  not  from  God, 
nor  from  any  source  other  than  ourselves;  that 
they  are  not  only  in  us,  but  from  us.  And  this  is 
not  only  a  falsehood,  but  the  worst  of  false 
hoods. 

Then  the  spiritual  part  of  man  comes  in  aid  of 
the  natural  part  of  man.  The  higher  accepts  all  of 
truth  that  the  lower  has  to  say.  It  accepts  its  as 
sertion  that  our  life  is  our  own ;  but  it  rejects  the 
falsehood  that  we  live  from  ourselves.  It  recog 
nizes  the  need  that  we  should  do  our  whole  duty, 
earnestly  and  devotedly;  and  that  we  may  so  do 
our  duty  it  knows  that  God  has  given  us  with 
our  life  a  consciousness  that  our  life  is  our  own. 
But  it  also  knows  that  this  consciousness  is  not 
true  nor  trustworthy  if  it  exists  alone  in  the  mind. 
It  knows  that  from  the  beginning  of  human  life 


118  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

there  have  been  with  all  men  intimations  of  the 
higher  truth  which  consecrates  this  lower  truth. 
And  probably  none  have  wholly  escaped  from 
the  conviction  that  there  is  a  higher  power  than 
we  are,  a  Creator,  a  Father,  who  gave  us  life 
and  governs  our  life.  There  may  have  been  and 
there  still  are  those  in  whom  perfect  and  indurated 
worldliness  appears  to  suppress  every  thought  and 
every  feeling  which  has  not  this  world  for  its 
home;  and  all  worldliness  must  do  so  in  the  de 
gree  in  which  it  has  an  influence  over  our  thoughts 
and  affections.  And  there  have  been  and  are  those 
who,  in  the  pride  of  their  self-ascribed  reason  and 
philosophy,  have  renounced  all  higher  thought  or 
feeling.  But  it  may  well  be  hoped  that  the  light 
of  the  central  truth  of  all  religion  has  been  some 
times  able  to  penetrate  even  these  dark  and  deep 
shadows. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  natural  faculties  are 
given  us  to  utilize  this  world,  and  the  spiritual  facul 
ties  are  given  us  to  prepare  in  this  life  for  the 
unending  life  which  follows  this.  But  the  spiritual 
faculties  make  this  preparation,  in  part  and  a  most 
important  part,  by  using  the  natural  faculties  for 
this  end. 


WHAT   IS    THIS    PREPARATION?  119 


XIV.    WHAT   IS    THIS   PREPARATION? 

Again  and  again  has  it  been  said  that  this  life  is 
intended  to  be  a  preparation  for  another  and  an 
unending  life.  I  would  attempt  to  say  what  this 
preparation  is,  but  to  exhibit  this  in  any  fulness 
would  require  another  volume.  I  can  only  give 
some  indication  of  it  in  its  most  general  form. 

Heaven  is  God's  Kingdom.  There  he  reigns,  and 
is  known  to  reign.  But  how  poor  this  language  is, 
for  it  suggests  only  command  and  rule  and  sover 
eignty  !  They  who  are  there  recognize  in  its  entire- 
ness  the  truth  that  their  life  is  His  life  given  to  them 
to  be  their  own.  Their  life  and  their  happiness  are 
measured  by  the  completeness  and  the  purity  of 
their  reception  of  His  life  and  of  His  happiness. 
And  His  life  is  Love  and  Wisdom,  in  constant  ac 
tivity.  They  are  able  to  receive  more  of  this  love 
in  the  measure  in  which  they  have  put  away  from 
themselves  self-love ;  for  this  is  the  one  opposite  to 
divine  love,  the  one  barrier  to  its  reception.  They 
are  able  to  receive  more  of  this  wisdom  in  the 
measure  in  which  they  put  away  from  themselves 
that  belief  in  their  self-sufficing  independence  of 
God,  which  is  the  centre  of  all  falsehood.  They  see 
Him  in  all  His  goodness,  in  all  His  constant  good- 


120  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

ness  to  them  and  to  all.  They  cannot  but  love  Him 
supremely,  and  their  love  to  Him  gives  birth  to 
a  love  for  others  which  casts  off  all  selfishness  as 
an  abhorred  thing.  They  see  Him  in  all  His  provi 
dence  ;  and  they  are  wise,  because  the  reception  of 
His  wisdom  makes  them  able  to  understand  His 
wisdom  in  its  working,  and  to  discern  clearly  what 
they  must  be  and  what  they  must  do,  that  His  will 
may  be  done,  and  His  love  carried  into  its  fullest 
effect.  They  seek  no  more  than  this;  but  this  they 
ever  seek,  and  ever  find  in  uses  and  activities  as  far 
beyond  our  imagination  as  they  would  be  beyond 
our  present  powers.  They  look  after  their  duty,  He 
takes  care  of  their  happiness. 

This  is  Heaven.  And  every  hour  of  our  life  on 
earth  offers  us  an  opportunity  to  become  more  pre 
pared  to  enter  into  this  heaven.  For,  if  we  make  a 
rightful  use  of  the  faculties  given  us  for  this  purpose, 
in  every  hour  we  may  resist  and  weaken  some  pro 
clivity  to  sin  or  selfishness  and  error;  we  may 
strengthen  our  belief  in  God,  and  our  trust  in  Him ; 
and  learn  more  and  more  to  look  upon  every  duty 
which  He  lays  upon  us,  as  His  gift,  given  to  us 
because  every  duty  well  done  in  obedience  to  Him, 
however  humble  it  may  be,  bears  us  onward  towards 
Him  and  His  Heaven. 


SPIRITUAL  AND  NATURAL  FACULTIES.    121 


XV.  HOW  THE  SPIRITUAL  FACULTIES  REGARD  THE 
NATURAL  FACULTIES. 

The  higher  recognizes  the  lower,  and  all  there  is 
of  truth  or  of  good  in  the  lower.  And  then  it  seeks 
to  infuse  into  all  this  a  new  life,  and  set  it  on  the 
way  from  earth  to  heaven.  It  bids  the  lower  facul 
ties  and  affections  stand  firmly  on  the  earth,  doing 
their  whole  work  there ;  but  with  new  activity  and 
new  success,  because  with  a  new  heart  and  a  new 
soul,  with  new  motives,  new  ends,  new  strength, 
and  new  happiness.  And  it  builds  up  a  spiritual 
character  by  this  activity  and  exercise  and  conse 
quent  growth  and  development,  of  the  spiritual  fac 
ulties  through  the  natural  faculties. 

In  this  we  have  an  illustration  of  the  relation 
between  the  higher  and  the  lower,  and  of  what  the 
higher  does  with  and  for  the  lower.  It  is  scrupulous 
to  save  all  that  is  good  and  true  below  itself.  It 
does  not  quench  the  smoking  flax  nor  break  the 
bruised  reed.  It  does  not  say  to  the  lower,  Pass 
away  into  silence  and  inaction,  and  make  room  for 
me  who  am  so  much  better  than  you.  It  ignores 
nothing  that  the  lower  does  for  the  comfort  of  life 
or  in  art  or  philosophy  or  science.  It  accepts  all 
this,  and  seeks  for  it,  and  earnestly  promotes  it. 


122  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

For  it  knows  that  all  the  lower  can  do,  anywhere  and 
everywhere,  is  but  a  means  towards  an  end  which 
the  higher  cannot  accomplish  without  the  lower. 
In  the  far  future  it  sees  a  boundless  advance  in  the 
activity  and  fruitfulness  of  the  lower  faculties  in  all 
their  vast  diversity  of  action.  And  in  this  advance 
it  sees  new  means  and  new  methods  for  the  accom 
plishment  of  its  own  work,  which  stands  to  the  work 
of  the  lower  faculties  as  the  soul  is  to  the  body,  as 
eternity  to  time,  as  heaven  to  earth.  It  gladly  rec 
ognizes  natural  goodness,  recognizes  it  as  goodness, 
and  rejoices  in  the  belief  that  it  is,  in  its  own  way 
and  measure,  a  preparation  for  happiness  hereafter. 
"  In  my  father's  house  are  many  mansions." 

There  is  a  possible  danger  in  dwelling  too  exclu 
sively  upon  the  belief  that  we  live  from  God.  It 
may  tend  to  throw  all  our  hope  and  all  our  duty 
upon  Him,  leaving  nothing  for  us  to  do.  But  this 
danger  is  in  these  days  very  seldom  incurred.  It  is 
far  more  necessary  to  consider  the  other  danger,  for 
that  is  actual  and  constant,  —  the  danger  that  our 
sense  of  personality  and  freedom  may  exclude  or 
overpower  our  belief  in  our  dependence  upon  God. 
Safety  from  this  peril  is  not  to  be  found  in  weaken 
ing  our  sense  of  personality  and  freedom ;  for  that 
cannot  be  too  strong.  Let  this  be  doubted,  let  this 
sense  grow  obscure  and  uncertain,  and  in  precisely 


SPIRITUAL    AND    NATURAL   FACULTIES.          123 

the  same  measure  all  sense  of  duty  and  responsi 
bility  will  become  obscure  and  uncertain.  And  it 
ought  to  become  so,  because  duty  and  responsibility 
rest  most  really  and  absolutely  upon  the  fact  that 
we  possess  our  life,  and  all  that  constitutes  our  life, 
as  our  own,  in  every  just  sense  of  that  phrase  and 
under  every  aspect  of  the  truth  it  expresses. 

There  is,  perhaps  inevitably,  a  tendency  among 
thoughtful  minds  to  consider  the  perfect  sover 
eignty  of  God  as  implying  some  want  of  actual  free 
agency  with  man.  They  know  that  freedom  and 
duty  must  have  an  existence  of  some  sort,  but  are 
disposed  to  regard  these  as  so  far  inconsistent  with 
divine  omnipotence  and  omniscience,  that  our  con 
sciousness  of  them  seems  to  be  not  so  much  the  true 
consciousness  of  a  positive  fact,  as  a  permitted  illu 
sion,  —  permitted  to  us  and  good  for  us,  that  by  it 
we  may  be  induced  to  bring  our  conduct  into  con 
formity  with  divine  law.  But  this  consciousness  is 
not  a  permitted  illusion.  It  is  a  consciousness  of 
the  fact  upon  which  rest  heaven  and  earth.  Our 
life  is  our  own.  It  is  not  from  ourselves  :  it  is  all, 
always,  and  instantly,  from  God  and  given  to  us ; 
but  it  is  given  us  to  be  our  own,  and  to  constitute 
our  selfhood.  This  giving  of  life  from  God  to 
become  most  actually  our  own  is  the  foundation 
upon  which  rests  all  the  work  of  God,  in  the  crea- 


124  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

tion,  preservation,  and  government  of  the  uni 
verse,  —  natural  and  spiritual,  —  and  of  all  things 
therein. 

Geology  and  all  the  sciences  which  tell  us  of  the 
vast  periods  consumed  in  the  growth  and  develop 
ment  of  the  material  universe ;  history  and  ethnol 
ogy,  and  whatever  speaks  to  us  of  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  human  race  through  the  im 
measurable  past,  —  all  help  us  to  see  the  infinite 
patience  of  the  Lord.  To  see  it ;  but  do  they  help 
us  to  understand  it,  to  know  why  the  Omnipotent 
accomplishes  only  very  slowly,  with  long  delay,  and 
with  a  long  series  of  short  steps  of  progress,  results 
which  it  would  seem  that  an  almighty  fiat  might 
have  brought  into  being  at  once  ?  No.  To  under 
stand  this  at  all,  we  must  cast  upon  it  the  light  of 
the  great  truths,  that  the  end  of  creation  is  a  con 
stantly  growing  heaven  of  the  human  race,  and  that 
men  can  be  prepared  for  heaven  only  in  their  free 
dom,  only  by  their  voluntary  co-operation  with  their 
Father's  working.  The  day  may  come  when  this 
truth,  taken  in  connection  with  the  correspondence 
of  all  things  of  the  material  worlds  with  all  things 
of  the  spirit,  may  solve  the  mystery  of  those  un 
numbered  ages  during  which  earth,  this  and  other 
earths,  were  and  are  prepared  to  be  the  dwelling- 
places  of  human  beings. 


SPIRITUAL    AND    NATURAL   FACULTIES.          125 

Even  now  we  may  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  truth 
which  explains  the  slow  and  gradual  advance  of 
man  from  the  rudest  beginnings  to  the  present  hour, 
and  his  extreme  imperfection  at  this  hour,  and  his 
utter  inferiority,  as  yet,  to  any  true  and  high  stand 
ard  of  excellence.  For  we  may  see  that  all  the 
advances  of  mankind,  all  the  steps  of  their  prog 
ress,  all  the  accumulated  good  of  this  progress,  con 
stitute  a  work  in  which  man  does  his  part,  in  the 
freedom  which  God  gives  him  that  he  may  use  the 
constantly  inflowing  life  of  God,  in  doing  this  work 
as  of  himself. 

If  we  can  see  this  truth  distinctly,  and  accept  it 
unreservedly,  we  shall  see  that,  were  not  man's  life 
his  own,  he  could  not  love  God  in  perfect  freedom 
and  by  his  own  choice.  We  shall  see  that  this  gift 
of  life  to  be  our  ow»  is  that  which  lifts  man  above 
the  brutes,  and  makes  man  to  be  the  summit  and 
crown  of  creation,  and  builds  him  into  God's  own 
image  and  likeness,  and  makes  it  possible  for  him  to 
have  that  pure  and  perfect  love  of  God,  which  gives 
him  the  capacity  of  receiving  that  highest  happiness 
of  which  created  beings  can  be  capable.  And  if  we 
admit  that  it  must  be  the  desire  of  infinite  love  to 
create  beings  to  whom  it  may  be  possible  for  Him  to 
give  this  happiness,  then  we  shall  see  that  God  could 
not  but  give  life  to  man  to  be  his  own;  that  he 


126  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

cannot  withhold  or  qualify  this  gift,  or  disregard  it  in 
the  slightest  degree  in  any  part  of  his  government 
of  man.  And  man  has  the  power  of  continuing  or 
becoming  bad,  because,  if  this  power  were  taken 
from  him,  with  it  he  would  lose  the  power  of  be 
coming  good. 

Then  we  shall  be  no  longer  troubled  to  account 
for  the  existence  of  evil.  We  shall  not  be  able,  and 
we  shall  make  no  effort  to  fathom  the  mystery  of 
the  infinite;  but  so  much  as  this  we  know.  Man 
must  be  free;  not  in  name  only  or  in  appearance 
only,  but  most  actually  and  most  absolutely ;  and  it 
is  just  so  that  he  is  free,  because  life,  and  freedom 
as  an  element  of  life,  are  given  to  him  to  be  his  own. 
That  is  not  freedom  which  is  limited  or  controlled 
in  its  exercise  or  in  the  direction  it  would  pursue. 
Therefore,  freedom  to  do  good  implies  of  necessity 
freedom  to  do  evil ;  or,  in  other  words,  if  evil  could 
not  be  done,  good  must  be  done,  and  what  must  be 
done  cannot  be  done  in  freedom.  And  because  this 
freedom  is  most  real  it  may  be  abused;  and  it  is 
abused.  Hence  moral  evil.  And  if  the  externals 
and  surroundings  of  man  are  made  for  him  they 
must  be  in  adaptation  to  him,  and  must  be  what 
he  makes  it  necessary  that  they  should  be  that  this 
adaptation  may  be  preserved.  And  thus  moral  evil 
calls  physical  evil  into  being. 


THE  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD.          127 


XVI.  OF  THE  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD. 

And  what  is  there  in  this  sense  of  absolute  and 
constant  freedom  to  weaken  our  sense  of  dependence 
upon  God  ?  Nothing,  providing  we  hold  as  firmly 
to  the  other  truth,  that  every  thing  whatever  of  our 
life  comes  from  God,  and  is  continually  His  gift ; 
always  and  at  every  instant  the  gift  of  infinite  love 
and  infinite  wisdom,  always  so  measured  and  so 
modified  as  our  highest  interests  require. 

It  may  be  true  that  one  may  believe  that  his  life 
is  incessantly  given  him  of  God,  and  is  given  him  to 
be  his  own ;  and  nevertheless  so  far  regard  himself 
as  independent  of  God,  as  to  be  incapable  of  humility 
and  exposed  to  the  fearful  danger  of  self-sufficiency. 
This  may  happen  thus.  If  one  believed  God  gave 
to  him  at  birth  life  from  Himself,  to  be  for  ever  his 
own,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  he  might  come  to  feel  that 
this  life,  whatever  its  origin,  when  once  his  own, 
made  him  as  independent  and  self-sufficing  as  if  his 
life  were  self-originating.  And  even  if  he  came 
nearer  to  the  truth,  and  believed  that  this  life  was 
not  given  him  at  once  and  for  eternity,  but  always 
and  at  every  moment,  he  might  still  feel  that  when 
thus  given,  if  given  to  be  his  own,  it  made  him 
equally  independent  and  self-sufficing  as  if  given  at 
the  beginning.  It  is,  then,  to  guard  against  this 


128  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

error  and  this  danger,  that  a  third  truth  comes  in. 
The  first  two  give  the  facts,  that  human  life  is  divine 
life  given  to  man,  and  that  it  is  so  given  to  him  that 
it  becomes  in  him  his  own  life.  The  third  gives  the 
reason  for  this.  It  is  that  man  may  in  the  exercise 
of  his  freedom  become  prepared  for  happiness.  But, 
that  this  end  may  be  reached,  it  is  not  enough  that 
divine  life  be  given  to  man,  to  be  his  own.  But  if  "is 
constantly  so  given  and  constantly  so  modified  in  its 
influence,  and  all  external  things  are  so  arranged, 
that  all  that  is  possible  may  be  done  for  man,  to  lead 
him,  guide  him,  and  induce  him  to  exercise  his  free 
dom  in  such  wise  as  to  approach  the  end  for  which 
this-  freedom  is  given. 

Divine  life  is,  in  itself,  perfect  love  and  perfect 
wisdom.  And  they  are  with  us  always.  They  do 
not  leave  the  man  to  whom  they  have  given  and  in 
whom  they  preserve  existence.  From  the  first  mo 
ment  of  that  existence  they  are  doing,  and  never 
cease  to  do  all  that  Omnipotence  can  do,  to  help  him 
to  happiness.  Whatever  is,  is  under  divine  govern 
ment,  the  greatest  and  the  smallest  alike ;  for  all  are 
so  perfectly.  Nothing  can  happen  under  this  gov 
ernment  but  for  an  end:  this  end,  as  it  is  that  which 
infinite  love  seeks,  must  be  the  highest  happiness  of 
the  creatures  it  has  caused  to  be.  Therefore  we 
may  know  that  every  event,  whether  it  be  of  history 


THE    PROVIDENCE    OF    G 

on  the  largest  scale,  or  of  the  moment 
the  individual,  must  happen  for  his  hi 
and  this  means  his  eternal  good.  This  highest  and 
eternal  good  requires  that  his  freedom  be  always 
given,  always  respected.  Whatever  happens  must 
happen  for  his  highest  good,  and  because  it  is  suited 
to  produce  that  good.  But  it  can  produce  that 
good,  or  any  good,  only  .so  far  as  he  is  willing  that 
it  should. 

Here  we  find  the  limit,  and  the  only  limit,  to  what 
God  can  do  for  man.  It  is  the  limit  imposed  by  His 
love  and  wisdom  upon  His  omnipotence.  Any  thing 
and  every  thing  is  always  done  to  help  man  to 
choose  right  and  not  wrong,  in  his  own  freedom. 
More  God  cannot  do,  because  He  cannot  cease  to 
be  perfect  love  and  perfect  wisdom. 

But  is  this  freedom  never  to  be  taken  away  when 
the  hour  of  happiness  comes :  is  it  not  to  be  con 
trolled  for  the  sake  of  that  happiness,  and  to  prevent 
its  loss  ?  The  answer  is,  Never.  And  if  the  question 
then  is  asked,  What  security  can  there  be  in  the  hap 
piness  of  heaven,  what  certainty  that  it  will  not 
fall  before  the  same  dangers  which  imperil  and  im 
pair  our  happiness  on  earth  ?  the  answer  to  this  ques 
tion  can  have  no  meaning,  unless  it  gives  a  glimpse, 
if  even  that  be  possible,  of  the  very  essence  of 
heavenly  happiness. 


130  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

We  live  here  to  prepare  for  heaven.  This  prepar 
ation  is  made  only  in  and  by  and  through  our  free 
dom.  And  this  preparation  is  effectual  when  such 
a  character  is  built  up  within  us,  that,  while  our  free 
dom  will  always  be  perfect,  we  shall  always  exercise 
our  freedom  in  choosing  good.  Not  because  we 
must,  but  because  we  will.  And  this  is  heavenly 
happiness.  Even  there  may  be  alternations  of  state; 
for  freedom  is  there,  or  it  would  not  be  heaven. 
Even  there  selfishness  may  grow  too  strong,  and 
threaten  to  cast  its  chill  and  darkness  on  the  love 
of  God  and  of  the  neighbor.  Even  there  it  may  be 
necessary  that  we  be  reminded  that  two  wrays  are 
open  before  us,  and  only  one  of  them  is  our  Father's 
way.  But  they  who  are  .  there  are  there  because 
they  are  so  reborn  into  newness  of  heart  and  life, 
and  their  character  is  governed  and  determined  by 
such  principles  and  motives,  that  it  is  only  necessary 
for  them  to  see  these  two  ways,  to  make  it  certain 
that  they  choose  the  better. 

This,  then,  may  be  the  conception  of  the  highest 
man,  —  of  him  who  has  grown  into  the  full  stature  of 
a  man ;  that  is,  of  an  angel.  His  consciousness  and 
certainty  that  his  life  is  in  very  fact  and  truth  his  own 
are  strong,  but  far  stronger  is  his  gratitude  towards 
the  infinite  love  which  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
resist  and  overcome  his  proclivities  to  sin  and  selfish- 


REVELATION.  131 

i^ess  and  degradation.  And  at  the  very  foundation 
of  every  thought  and  affection  lies  the  certainty  that 
each  and  every  one  of  them,  and  all  that  he  has  and 
all  that  he  is,  flows  to  him  constantly  from  this  con 
stant  love.  He  is  there  the  instrument  of  God,  the 
hand  of  God,  but  yet  a  person  and  himself.  He  is 
the  living  instrument,  who,  in  the  freedom  and  the 
strength  given  to  him  to  be  his  own,  accepts  and 
uses  all  his  means  and  capacities  for  doing  his  Fa 
ther's  work.  We  can  neither  imagine  his  grateful 
joy  when  he  remembers  that  he  is  so  constituted, 
so  led,  and  so  supported,  to  the  very  end  that  he 
may  be  capable  of  receiving  this  happiness  from  his 
Father's  Love,  nor  his  shuddering  horror  at  the 
thought  of  being  deserted  by  his  Father  and  left 
to  himself. 

XVII.    REVELATION. 

Revelation  has  already  been  defined,  or  rather 
described,  as  Truth  taught  by  the  Lord  directly  to 
mankind.  What  is  meant  by  this  word  "  directly  "  ? 
We  know  what  sensation  is,  and  we  know,  though 
not  so  precisely,  what  the  mind  can  acquire  by 
thought  about  sensations.  The  acquisitions  thus 
made  may  be  very  large  and  diversified;  perhaps, 
within  their  own  scope,  unlimited  in  extent  and 


THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

variety.  But  there  is  a  limit  which  they  cannot 
pass;  for  they  can  never  go  beyond  things  apper 
taining  to  this  material  universe,  and  to  the  life  of 
man  while  he  is  in  the  material  body.  For  thoughts 
and  ideas  which  transcend  this  limit,  knowledge 
must  come  to  us  by  other  means  than  by  sensation. 
All  thoughts  come  to  us  from  God,  because  all 
thought  and  all  life  come  from  Him.  But  all  of 
those  which  I  call  natural  thoughts  and  ideas  come 
to  us  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  material  universe, 
and  of  those  faculties  which  are  adapted  to  make 
the  utmost  possible  use  of  this,  universe.  The 
knowledge  which  we  have  of  spiritual  things  can 
not  come  to  us  by  this  instrumentality.  It  comes 
directly.  It  comes  by  Revelation. 

There  are  many,  perhaps  indefinitely  various  ways 
in  which  it  may  be  given  to  man.  If  we  remember 
that  Revelation  is  a  giving  by  the  Infinite  of  knowl 
edge  concerning  infinite  things  to  finite  beings,  — 
and  that  nothing  can  be  given  that  cannot  be  re 
ceived, —  and  that  ages  and  races  differ  indefinitely 
in  their  capacity  of  reception,  we  may  be  sure  of 
two  things :  one,  that  Revelation  must  be  multiform ; 
the  other,  that  it  must  be  progressive.  It  must  be 
multiform,  because  it  must  be  adapted  in  form  and 
manner  to  the  varied  receptivity  of  ages  and  races. 
It  must  be  progressive,  because  that  truth  is  always 


REVELATION.  %    133 

given,  and  only  that  which  can  be  usefully  given. 
And  the  purpose  and  the  effect  upon  human  charac 
ter  of  the  spiritual  truth  given  by  Revelation  must 
always  be  to  enlarge  human  receptivity  for  spiritual 
truth. 

Between  sensation  as  the  foundation  of  all  action 
of  the  natural  faculties  and  Revelation  as  the  foun 
dation  of  all  action  of  the  spiritual  faculties,  there 
are  many  points  of  analogy. 

Sensation  teaches  at  first  simple  things,  easily 
received ;  and,  as  the  senses  grow  in  power  by  exer 
cise,  the  instruction  they  give  grows  in  extent  and 
in  definiteness.  But  always  what  it  teaches  must  be 
received  rationally,  and  can  only  yield  its  best  fruits 
when  the  faculties  fitted  to  deal  with  it  do  their 
work  wisely,  and  advance,  step  by  step,  in  the  con 
clusions  they  draw  from  what  the  senses  present 
to  them. 

So  Revelation,  which  began  we  believe  when  man 
began,  has  been  received  in  a  vast  variety  of  ways 
and  of  forms,  but  has  been  on  the  whole  advancing 
and  progressive.  So,  too,  it  has  always  been  given 
to  the  spiritual  faculties;  for,  if  man  had  not  pos 
sessed  these  faculties,  Revelation  could  neither  have 
been  given  to  him  nor  received  by  him.  Moreover, 
it  became  what  these  faculties  by  their  wise  or  their 
unwise  action  upon  revelation  made  of  it.  And 


134  THE   INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

when  these  faculties  became  perverted,  their  com 
prehension  of  the  truths  of  revelation  became  per 
verted,  and  their  presentation  of  them  distorted. 
For  the  spiritual  faculties,  when  perverted,  are  just 
as  capable  of  spiritual  error  and  falsehood  as  they 
are  of  seeing  and  stating  spiritual  truth,  when  they 
are  not  perverted. 

XVIII.     THE    SUCCESSION    OF   REVELATIONS. 

Diversified  as  have  been  the  forms  and  methods 
as  well  as  the  measures  of  revelation  of  spiritual 
truth,  they  have  been  alike  in  one  respect.  They 
have  always  been  given  through  some  use  of  the 
natural  faculties.  They  have  always  been  given  for 
the  spiritual  faculties  to  lay  hold  of  and  profit  by. 
They  have  always  been  used,  and  they  have  always 
been  abused.  So  far  as  they  have  been  used,  they 
have  developed  and  invigorated  the  spiritual  facul 
ties  of  man,  and  raised  them  into  the  possibility  of 
apprehending  higher  and  further  revelation ;  and 
then  this  has  been  given.  So  far  as  they  have  been 
abused,  their  truths  have  become  perverted  into  fal 
sities;  and  they  have  been  corrupted  until  they 
became  the  apparent  causes  of,  or  incitements  to, 
or  excuses  for,  every  kind  and  every  degree  of 
wrong-doing. 


THE    SUCCESSION    OF    REVELATIONS.  135 

Over  all  this  Divine  Providence  has  watched; 
always  respecting  the  spiritual  freedom  of  man's 
ownhood,  always  preserving  it  by  equilibrating  the 
spiritual  influences  which  come  to  him,  and  always 
doing  for  man  all  that  the  maintenance  of  this 
freedom  permitted.  So  far  as  the  gifts  of  revelation 
have  been  perverted  and  abused,  the  evil  results  of 
this  abuse  have  been  mitigated  and  counteracted, 
until  they  passed  away  to  return  no  more.  And,  so 
far  as  the  gifts  of  revelation  have  been  rightly  used, 
the  good  results  of  this  use  have  remained  as  abiding 
means  of  improving  human  character.  Hence  there 
has  been  an  advance  —  by  waves  which  sometimes 
seemed  to  retreat,  but  on  the  whole  did  advance  — 
in  the  condition  of  mankind ;  a  gradual  growth  in 
the  capacity  of  receiving  revelation  and  making  a 
good  use  of  it ;  and  with  this  an  advance,  in  suc 
cessive  steps,  of  the  revelations  which  give  men 
spiritual  truth. 

Then,  as  the  human  race  advanced  under  the  in 
fluence  of  revelation,  and  as  the  truths  revealed  were 
higher,  their  perversions  even  into  entire  falsities 
grew  less  dreadful;  and  the  wrong-doing  perpe 
trated  under  the  name  of  religion,  although  still  the 
worst  of  wrong-doing,  was  mitigated  in  its  char 
acter.  Many  ages  have  passed  away  since  any 
religion  could  be  so  falsified  as  to  persuade  its  fol- 


136  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

lowers  that  they  pleased  their  Gods  when  they  cast 
their  children  into  a  huge  brazen  figure,  flaming 
with  heat.  And  many  ages  have  passed  since  any 
religion  could  impel  its  votaries  to  the  public  prac 
tice  of  unutterable  lust  and  cruelty.  Those  things 
have  passed  away,  not  to  return. 

Not  to  return  in  those  forms.  But  a  perversion 
of  Christian  doctrine  and  motive  led  to  the  infernal 
and  indescribable  cruelties  practised  upon  the  Wal- 
denses,  and  in  the  Netherlands,  and  by  the  Inqui 
sition  generally,  and  not  by  that  alone.  And  the 
"  faith  alone "  of  Calvin  and  Luther  hastened  into 
premature  ripeness,  and  bore  its  fruits,  and  by  its 
fruits  showed  what  it  was,  in  the  abominations  of 
antinomianism  in  Munster.  But  all  that  too  has 
passed  away,  not  to  return. 

From  the  beginning  of  human  existence  there 
have  been  revelations.  For  man  has  always  been 
immortal,  has  always  lived  on  earth  to  prepare  here 
for  a  happy  immortality,  and  could  never  make 
this  preparation  but  by  the  use  of  spiritual  faculties 
given  to  him  for  this  end  ;  and  these  faculties  could 
have  no  foundation  to  rest  upon,  no  beginning  to 
proceed  from,  and  no  activity  whatever,  except  by 
making  use  of  what  was  given  to  them  by  revela 
tion.  For  the  natural  faculties  alone  could  not  offer 
to  them  even  a  suggestion,  or  impart  to  them  the 
first  movement  of  spiritual  life. 


CORRESPONDENCE.  137 

These  revelations  have  been  exceedingly  diverse 
in  way  and  manner,  and  form  and  measure ;  for  in 
many  ways  and  by  various  means  have  truths  con 
cerning  God  and  the  spiritual  world  come  down  to 
man  from  God  through  the  heavens.  And  this 
descent  of  truth  has  always  been  a  revelation. 
There  are  four  of  these  of  which  I  would  speak 
more  particularly. 

In  ages  far  before  historic  times,  there  was  a 
church  founded  among  men.  They  who  were  its 
members  differed,  I  believe,  exceedingly  from  our 
selves  in  constitution  and  in  character.  Revelations 
were  made  to  them  in  accordance  with  their  pecu 
liar  constitution  and  character.  What  these  were, 
I  can  describe  only  by  saying  something  of  the  cor 
respondence  between  the  world  of  spirit  and  the 
world  of  matter. 

XIX.     CORRESPONDENCE. 

God  creates  from  Himself,  by  effluence  from 
Himself.  What  He  thus  creates  is  nearer  to  Him, 
or  farther  from  Him.  What  He  thus  creates  nearest 
to  Himself  (we  may  call  it,  if  it  will  help  our  under 
standing  of  the  case,  the  sphere  of  being),  this  nearest 
sphere  is  the  instrument  by  which  He  thus  creates 
the  next ;  and  so  on  successively  until  the  last  and 


138  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

lowest,  earth,  this  and  other  earths,  are  so  created. 
Between  each  sphere  thus  created,  and  that  above 
it  by  which  as  an  instrument, it  is  created,  there  is 
perfect  correspondence.  Each  therefore  corresponds 
to  all,  and  all  to  their  Creator. 

A  volume  would  not  suffice  to  exhibit  either  the 
laws  or  the  facts  of  this  correspondence  in  detail. 
It  may  be  impossible  for  me  to  say  any  thing  intelli 
gible  about  it,  in  a  page  or  two.  But  I  must  make 
the  attempt.  This  correspondence  has  been  the 
foundation  of  all  human  speech ;  for  in  all  languages 
words  have  expressed  things  above  the  senses  only 
by  rising  into  that  meaning  from  their  original 
lower  sensuous  meaning.  It  has  given  to  poetry  all 
the  force  and  beauty  it  has  ever  had;  and  by 
means  of  poetry,  and  because  recognized  when  so 
used  as  a  fanciful  and  pleasing  unreality,  even  by 
this  use  of  this  correspondence  thoughts  have  been 
suggested  and  motives  prompted  by  poetry,  which 
otherwise  the  world  might  not  have  known.  But 
the  time  has  come  for  the  recognition  of  it  as  a  uni 
versal  fact,  and  the  study  of  it  as  a  science ;  and  as 
a  science  which  must  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all 
philosophical  religion.  I  would  therefore,  if  I  could, 
offer  to  my  readers  a  sketch,  which  must  be  brief 
and  scanty  and  utterly  imperfect,  of  some  of  the  ele 
mentary  principles  and  conclusions  of  this  science. 


CORRESPONDENCE.  139 

Whatever  belongs  to  man,  and  is  not  of  his  body, 
may  be  referred  either  to  what  he  loves,  desires,  or 
feels,  or  else  to  what  he  thinks,  intends,  and  believes ; 
in  other  words,  all  things  of  the  world  within  man 
refer  either  to  the  Will,  or  else  to  the  Understand 
ing.  So  all  things  of  the  world  without  man,  which 
by  correspondence  represent  the  things  within  man, 
refer  either  to  the  things  of  the  will  or  to  those  of 
the  understanding. 

The  infinite  love  of  God  flows  into  the  human 
will,  and  there  constitutes  whatever  of  affection  the 
man  has.  This  love  flows  down  below  the  world  of 
spirit  into  the  world  of  matter.  The  primal  and 
most  general  form  which  it  takes  there  is  Heat 
Already  science  is  rapidly  advancing  towards  the 
conclusion  that  all  the  forces  of  nature  are  but  forms 
and  modifications  of  one  force,  which,  in  nature,  may 
best  be  called  Heat.  It  will  reach  this  conclusion, 
but  will  not  stop  there ;  for  natural  science  will  be 
led  by  spiritual  science  to  know  that  Heat  is  but  the 
form  which  Divine  Love  puts  on,  when  it  comes 
down  into  nature  and  operates  there.  And  there 
are  indefinitely  diversified  forms  and  effects  of  heat 
in  the  world  without  man,  and  indefinitely  diver 
sified  forms  and  effects  of  love  in  the  world  within 
man ;  and  these  correspond,  all  to  all,  each  to  each, 
with  precise  and  scientific  exactness. 


140  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

What  is  said  of  the  relation  between  Love  and 
Heat  may  be  applied,  with  little  change,  to  the  rela 
tion  between  Wisdom  and  Light.  This  word  wisdom 
I  must  take  to  express  every  thing  which,  proceed 
ing  from  its  infinite  source  in  the  Divine  Being, 
fills  and  animates  every  thing  of  the  understanding, 
or  of  the  intellectual  side  of  his  nature,  in  man. 
And  whatever  light  is  or  does  in  external  nature, 
that  this  influent  wisdom  does  in  the  realms  of 
thought;  and  these  two  correspond,  all  to  all,  and 
each  to  each,  with  precise  and  scientific  exactness. 

XX.     THE    TEST    OF    CORRESPONDENCE. 

These  details  might  be  carried  indefinitely  farther ; 
but  what  has  been  said  will  suffice,  at  least  for  a 
sample.  It  will  suggest  this  view  to  some  readers. 
There  is  a  sort  of  resemblance  or  analogy  between 
heat  and  affection,  and  between  light  and  truth,  which 
common  language  continually  expresses.  Sweden- 
borg,  not  content  with  this  in  its  common-sense  form 
and  measure,  lays  hold  of  it  as  a  foundation  on 
which  his  strong  scientific  tendency  leads  him,  and 
his  vivid  imagination  enables  him,  to  build  up  a  sort* 
of  system  which  he  calls  a  science.  But  passing, 
beyond  the  bounds  of  a  moderate,  common-sense 
use  of  an  obvious  analogy,  he  plunges  into  folly  and 


TEST    OF    CORRESPONDENCE.  141 

mysticism.  So  some  readers  will  think ;  so  perhaps 
they  cannot  but  think.  But  to  others  it  may  occur 
as  worth  inquiry,  whether  it  is  not  possible  that 
these  simple,  common-sense  notions  are  but  the  dim 
recognitions  of  a  greater  truth,  and  are  themselves 
true  only  because  they  are  the  most  obvious  applica 
tions  of  what  is  in  fact  a  universal  law.  And  that 
Swedenborg,  the  eminent  mathematician  and  scien 
tist  which  all  men  called  him  once,  has  succeeded 
in  learning  and  in  teaching  the  principles  of  a  true 
science. 

It  ought  to  be  plain,  but  I  fear  it  is  not,  that  the 
science  itself  offers  the  only  test  of  its  own  truth. 
If,  when  patiently  and  honestly  studied,  it  offers  no 
fruits  to  the  student,  there  is  for  him  the  end  of  it. 
But  if,  when  carefully  examined  in  its  principles  and 
in  the  application  of  them  to  the  facts  of  mind  and 
nature,  it  is  seen  to  solve  many  difficult  questions, 
and  to  throw  a  strong  light  into  dark  corners  of 
both  worlds,  and  reveal  unsuspected  treasures  in 
them,  surely  it  may  be  deemed  a  science,  and  one 
of  much  value.  It  will  indeed  cover  the  whole  of 
both  worlds,  and  reconcile  them.  It  will  make  the 
outer  world  the  mirror,  the  expression  of  that  which 
is  within.  And  it  will  teach  us  to  find  words  and 
figures  to  express  truths  of  the  inner  world,  which 
would  otherwise  be  unexpressed  and  inexpressible. 


142  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 


XXI.     THE    ANCIENT    CHURCHES. 

The  most  ancient  church  above  spoken  of  learned 
spiritual  truth  through  these  correspondences.  It 
was  common  among  them  to  have  their  spiritual 
senses  open,  and  they  lived  in  a  communication  with 
the  spiritual  world  which  was  afterwards  lost.  They 
heard  persons  speak,  and  saw  persons  and  things, 
who  were  only  in  that  world.  They  saw  the  corre 
spondence  of  natural  things  with  spiritual  things, 
and  in  natural  things  saw  the  spiritual  things  to 
which  they  corresponded  and  which  they  therefore 
represented. 

This  was  the  infancy  not  of  the  human  race,  but 
of  churches  among  men.  When  this  state  passed 
away,  the  knowledge  of  correspondence  remained, 
not  as  matter  of  perception,  but  by  memory  and 
tradition ;  and  as  the  ages  passed  this  became  obscure 
and  perverted ;  but  it  was  never  wholly  lost  among 
men,  and  has  been  the  permanent  foundation  of 
spiritual  beliefs  which  have  always  prevailed  among 
the  nations,  and  have  had  an  immense  diversity  of 
aspect  and  of  character. 

In  a  subsequent  age,  distant  from  the  beginning, 
but  so  distant  from  our  own  times  that  history  has 
but  dim  intimations  of  it,  these  traditions  of  corre- 


THE    BIBLE.  143 

spondences  were  gathered  into  form.  It  may  have 
become  later  a  written  Word,  but  at  first  we  have 
no  reason  to  believe  that  writing  was  known.  It 
was  then  delivered  over  to  memory  and  systematic 
tradition.  Modern  inquiries  into  the  remains  of  an 
tiquity  bear  interesting  testimony  to  the  systematic, 
faithful,  and  successful  efforts  to  preserve  the  accu 
racy  of  tradition,  by  means  of  a  body  of  men  thor 
oughly  trained  in  the  art  of  accurately  remembering, 
preserving,  and  teaching  truths  held  sacred. 

XXH.     THE    BIBLE. 

We  have  grouped  all  these  modes  of  revelation 
together,  regarding  them  as  substantially  one.  And 
now  I  come  to  the  second.  It  was  that  which  gave 
us  what  we  call  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Wisdom  of  God  took  possession,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  writers  of  the  books  which  compose  that 
Book,  took  possession  of  their  pens,  and  of  their 
hands  which  held  those  pens,  and  of  their  minds 
and  memories,  and  of  the  thoughts  they  had  and 
the  words  they  had.  Through  these  it  made  a  Rev 
elation  of  itself,  as  perfect  as  the  instruments  it  must 
employ  permitted.  And  it  is  divine  throughout. 
In  its  letter  it  comes  down  to  men  in  all  states  and 
conditions  to  do  for  them  the  good  for  which  all 


144  THE    LNTINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

revelation  is  given,  —  to  lift  them  above  a  merely 
natural  condition,  and  into  one  which  may  be  recep 
tive  of  spiritual  and  abiding  happiness. 

To  natural  men,  and  to  men  in  the  lowest  degra 
dation  of  sin  and  darkness,  it  comes  on  its  errand  of 
mercy ;  and  it  says  to  them  all  that  can  be  said  to 
such  as  they  are,  in  the  literal  sense.  But  it  comes 
also  to  men  in  higher,  and  in  all  higher,  even  the 
highest  states,  on  the  same  errand.  It  teaches  them 
what  they  are  in  their  own  selfhood,  marred  and 
degraded  as  that  is,  and  the  absolute  antagon 
ism  between  this  and  good  and  happiness  and  God, 
and  by  what  means  they  may  escape  from  sin  and 
suffering,  and  depart  from  it  farther  and  farther  for 
ever  and  for  ever.  This  it  does  in  much  of  the 
literal  sense,  and  throughout  in  the  spiritual  sense 
which  pervades  the  whole  Word. 

It  was  for  this  purpose,  —  that  the  literal  sense 
might  be  by  correspondence  an  adequate  expres 
sion  of  the  spiritual  sense, — that  the  Wisdom  of 
God  took  possession  of  the  writers,  and  suspended 
for  a  time  their  personality  and  freedom.  A  part 
of  the  earlier  Word  above  mentioned,  which  was 
composed  in  distant  ages  wholly  by  correspondence, 
and  was  without  literal  truth,  was  placed  as  an  intro 
duction  to  this  Word,  and  extends  into  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Genesis.  Under  the  form  of  the  creation 


THE    BIBLE.  145 

of  the  external  universe  is  told  the  story  of  man's 
internal  creation,  of  the  birth  and  growth  of  his 
spiritual  nature,  or  of  his  regeneration. 

The  remainder  of  that  Word  consists  of  religious 
songs,  of  prophecies,  and  of  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  nation.  That  this  history  might,  in  its  letter, 
be  an  adequate  expression  of  spiritual  truth,  the 
Jews  were  led  through  their  strange  and  eventful 
history,  in  such  wise  that  the  mere  narration  of* 
those  events  suffices  for  the  most  part  as  the  form 
of  spiritual  truth.  Not  always,  however:  in  some 
instances  —  taken  altogether,  only  a  very  few  — 
this  was  impossible,  and  statements  were  made  not 
historically  accurate,  because  it  was  necessary  so  to 
give  spiritual  truth  under  natural  forms.  The  im 
possibilities  lately  so  much  commented  upon  by 
Colenso  and  others  are  instances  of  this. 

The  Jews  were  a  chosen  people,  —  chosen  not  for 
their  goodness,  but  for  their  peculiar  character. 
They  were  chosen  as  the  most  merely  natural  people 
then  or  ever  existing.  Hence  in  the  literal  sense 
there  is  little  reference  to  another  life,  and  they 
could  learn  little  of  another  life.  Their  God  was 
presented  to  them  as  one  of  terror,  of  vindictive 
wrath;  and  pestilence,  famine,  and  war  were  the 
instruments  he  loved  to  employ.  Such  at  least 
is  the  aspect  of  the  presentation  of  God  to  them 
10 


146  THE   INFINITE   AND    THE   FINITE. 

in  a  large  part  of  the  literal  sense  of  the  Old  Tes 
tament. 

And  that  is  the  aspect  of  the  Word  of  God  how 
ever  uttered,  or  of  Divine  Truth,  to  all  in  whom  the 
Jewish  nature  predominates  ;  and  this  means  to  all 
merely  natural  men  who  arc  down  at  the  bottom  of 
the  scale,  and  to  this  nature  wherever  it  exists,  and 
therefore  to  all  men  until  they  rise  high  enough  to 
see  this  Truth  under  another  aspect.  It  is  to  them 
who  are  in  this  low  condition,  commandment,  coer 
cive  law  :  "  Thou  shalt  not."  It  puts  on  this  aspect 
that  it  may  reach  and  help  them  ;  for  "  The  fear  of 
the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  Wisdom."  But  obe 
dience  to  the  law  gradually  improves  the  character, 
and  opens  the  mind  to  see  it  under  a  different 
aspect.  The  commandments  become  laws  of  love, 
and  these  laws  become  promises  of  a  state  in  which 
law  no  longer  needs  to  be  coercive.  Obedience  will 
still  be  rendered,  no  longer  by  fear,  but  by  gratitude 
for  the  goodness  which  gives  these  laws  as  guides  to 
happiness. 

THE   FIRST    CHRISTIAN   REVELATION 


The  Bible  is  the  expression  of  Infinite  Wisdom  : 
in  its  letter  it  is  the  lowest  expression.  But  as  char 
acter  advances,  as  with  regeneration  a  new  spirit  is 


FIRST    CHRISTIAN   REVELATION.  147 

born  within  us,  we  become  capable  of  seeing  higher 
senses  to  this  Word ;  and  above  the  highest  angels 
who  rejoice  in  the  brightest  sunshine  of  heaven, 
there  still  rises  infinite  wisdom,  the  Word  that  in 
the  beginning  was  with  God  and  was  God. 

And  then,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  this  Infinite  and 
Divine  Word  came  down  to  earth  in  a  new  way. 
Assuming  from  Mary  a  human  nature,  He  stood 
upon  earth,  a  man  among  men. 

I  am  sure  that  I  had  better  not  attempt  to  give,  in 
the  brief  space  I  could  here  devote  to  it,  any  state 
ment  of  what  I  should  call  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Lord :  not  because  it  would  be  feeble  and  imperfect ; 
for  that  any  statement  I  could  make  of  this  tran 
scendent  doctrine,  any  explanation  I  could  offer  of 
this  transcendent  Fact,  would  be,  but  because  it 
would  be  so  imperfect  as  to  be  unintelligible,  unless 
I  gave  to  it  an  altogether  disproportioned  space  of 
this  little  essay.  Let  me,  then,  go  at  once  to  the 
character  of  this,  the  first  Christian  revelation.  It 
is  made  by  the  Gospels  and  by  the  book  which 
bears  the  name  of  Revelation.  They,  like  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  were  written  by  Inspiration, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  correspondence  between 
spiritual  things  and  natural  things.  In  their  literal 
sense  the  Divine  Wisdom  is  in  its  fulness  and  its 
power ;  and  this  sense  will  remain  for  ever,  the  lowest 


148  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

steps  of  the  ladder  which  resting  upon  earth  rises 
to  heaven,  and  through  heaven  to  its  source. 

Among  the  words  recorded  of  our  Lord  is  the 
promise  that  He  will  come  again  "  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven."  He,  the  Infinite,  who  came  to  earth  in  the 
human  nature  which  he  assumed,  will  come  again 
to  earth,  and  this  time  He  will  come  "  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven."  What  does  this  mean,  and  what  can  be 
this  coming?  The  science  of  correspondence  may 
give  us  the  answer  to  this  question.  If  it  cannot, 
nothing  else  can. 

XXIV.     THE    SECOND    CHRISTIAN   REVELATION. 

All  things  of  the  external  world  correspond  either 
to  what  is  of  the  will  or  what  is  of  the  understand 
ing,  because  these  two  constitute  the  world  within. 
This  has  been  said  already.  I  add  now  that  water 
corresponds  to  what  I  may  call  truth,  having  no 
word  of  wider  meaning,  but  intending  to  include 
all  things  of  the  understanding  which  belong  to 
actual  life,  as  water  does  to  the  earth.  Clouds  are 
water  lifted  up  frojn  the  earth  by  the  sun,  to  the 
intent  that  it  may  fall  down  again  to  fertilize  the 
fields  and  support  life.  By  inspiration,  infinite 
wisdom  lifted  up  from  the  earth  thoughts,  knowl 
edges,  words,  and  facts  which  belopged  there,  and 


SECOND    CHRISTIAN   REVELATION.  149 

used  them  as  its  instrument  or  means,  by  which 
this  truth  might  descend  upon  the  fields  of  spir 
itual  life,  and  fertilize  them  and  support  spiritual 
life.  Hence  clouds  correspond  to  and  represent  the 
letter,  or  literal  sense,  of  this  Word ;  and  they  bear 
this  meaning  throughout  the  Scriptures.  When  our 
Lord  declared  that  His  second  coming  should  be 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  he  declared  that  it  should 
be  in  the  literal  sense  of  His  Word.  He  has  so 
come.  He  has  come  in  and  by  a  revelation  of  that 
spiritual  sense  of  Scripture  which  lies  within  the 
literal  sense. 

This  revelation  He  made  through  his  servant,  his 
agent  for  this  purpose,  Emanuel  Swedenborg.  The 
general  facts  of  this  man's  life  are  now  well  known. 
I  need  refer  to  them  but  very  briefly.  He  was  the 
son  of  a  Swedish  Bishop  of  high  repute,  and  was 
born  in  1688.  Educated  as  well  as  was  then  pos 
sible,  possessing  remarkable  intellectual  power,  with 
an  earnest  thirst  for  knowledge  and  habits  of  de 
voted  industry,  he  acquired  in  early  life  a  high 
position  among  scientific  men,  and  produced  succes 
sively  works  of  science  and  philosophy  which  have 
always  been  acknowledged  as  having  great  merit. 
About  the  year  1745,  when  fifty-seven  years  old,  his 
spiritual  senses  were  opened,  and,  abandoning  nat 
ural  science,  he  devoted  himself  for  the  remainder  of 


150  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

his  life,  twenty-seven  years,  to  the  acquirement  aiid 
promulgation  of  spiritual  science,  —  of  the  science 
of  religion. 

His  spiritual  senses  were  opened.  The  material 
body  is  formed  of  material  substance.  It  has  al 
ready  been  said,  that  there  is  but  one  substance, 
and  that  is  Divine.  Flowing  forth  from  the  Infinite, 
and  reaching  its  lowest  place,  there,  through  its 
adaptation  to  the  mind  and  the  senses,  and  through 
the  agency  of  the  mind  and  the  senses,  it  becomes 
matter,  and  of  this  the  body  and  the  bodily  organs 
of  sense  are  formed.  But  within  the  material  body 
is  the  soul;  and  this  too  is  an  organism,  living  in 
and  acting  through  a  spiritual  body,  which,  with  its 
sensories,  is  formed  of  spiritual  substance ;  and  this 
is  the  same  substance  from  the  Divine,  in  a  higher 
form.  These  two  forms  or  modes  of  substance  cor 
respond  together.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  spiritual 
body  fills  and  animates  the  material  body,  and  lives 
in  it  and  acts  through  it ;  for  whenever  we  see,  or 
hear,  or  feel,  it  is  our  spiritual  body  which  sees  and 
hears  and  feels  through  the  material  body;  which 
loses  all  life  and  sense  when  the  spiritual  body  leaves 
it  at  death. 

This  material  body  has  two  functions.  By  one,  it 
is  the  instrument  by  which  the  senses  of  the  spiritual 
body  may  have,  through  the  material  senses,  cogni- 


SECOND    CHRISTIAN   REVELATION.  151 

zance  of  the  things  of  this  world.  By  the  other, 
while  it  clothes  the  spiritual  body  with  the  material 
body,  it  is  a  barrier  between  the  senses  of  the  spir 
itual  body  and  the  things  of  the  spiritual  world. 
That  is  to  say,  while  we  live  in  a  material  body  we 
are  cognizant  of  the  material  world.  But  because  the 
material  body  is  in  the  way,  we  are  not  then  cognizant 
of  the  spiritual  world.  The  material  body  loses  both 
of  these  functions  at  death,  because  it  then  ceases  to 
clothe  the  spiritual  body.  Thereafter  the  spiritual 
body  through  its  sensories  has  cognizance  of  the 
things  of  the  spiritual  world,  and  has  no  longer  any 
cognizance  of  the  things  of  the  material  world. 
Either  of  these  functions  of  matter  may  be  sus 
pended  during  life  in  this  world.  The  material 
body  by  sleep,  or  disease,  may  cease  to  be  an  in 
strument  through  which  the  spiritual  senses  take 
cognizance  of  the  things  of  the  material  world. 
And  also  it  may  happen,  that  the  material  body 
ceases  to  be  a  barrier,  preventing  the  spiritual  senses 
from  taking  cognizance  of  things  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Either  of  these  functions  may  be  suspended 
partially  or  entirely.  The  cause  which  prevents  the 
material  body  from  being  an  adequate  instrument 
of  the  spiritual  body  may  operate  upon  some  only 
of  the  senses  or  of  the  limbs,  and  its  operation  may 
be  complete  or  imperfect.  Just  so,  if  the  barrier  be 


152  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

removed,  this  removal  may  be  partial  or  entire,  it 
may  be  complete  or  imperfect.  Only  one  sense,  or 
only  two,  of  the  spiritual  body  may  be  enabled  to 
take  cognizance  of  the  things  of  the  spiritual  world, 
as  sight  or  hearing  or  touch  only;  and  they  may 
have  this  cognizance  dimly  and  imperfectly,  or 
clearly  and  perfectly.  In  Swedenborg's  case  the  bar 
rier  was  entirely  removed ;  almost  as  perfectly  as  it 
is  removed  by  death.  He  was  in  the  spiritual  world, 
not  always  or  continuously  during  these  twenty- 
seven  years,  but  nearly  so;  a  spirit  among  spirits, 
almost  as  completely  as  when  he  finally  left  the 
material  body. 

If  the  main  purpose  of  this  revelation  was  that 
our  Lord  might  come  "  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,"  or 
that  he  might  come  and  disclose  that  infinite  wis 
dom  which  lies  within  the  letter  of  His  Word,  the 
question  may  be  asked  why,  for  this  purpose,  the 
spiritual  senses  of  Swedenborg  were  opened.  The 
answer  to  this  question  must  come  from  the  science 
of  Correspondences. 

fe 

XXV.     A    DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN    THIS    MATERIAL 
WORLD    AND    THE    SPIRITUAL   WORLD. 

This  correspondence  is,  in  the  most  general  form, 
a  correspondence  between  the  spiritual  and  the  nat- 


MATERIAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  WORLDS  DIFFERENT.     153 

ural.  Hence  this  lower  outer  world  corresponds  to 
the  world  within  man.  But  this  correspondence  is 
general  only,  and  not  specific  ;  it  is  a  correspondence 
of  the  external  universe  to  man's  internal,  but  not 
an  exact  correspondence  of  the  external  world  sur 
rounding  each  individual  to  his  internal.  The 
external  world  is,  so  to  speak,  the  common  resultant 
of  all  the  forces  which  form  the  whole  world  within 
men,  and  they  give  to  the  world  without  him  its 
form  and  aspect  and  correspondence.  To  this  ex 
tent,  therefore,  it  is  a  mirror  and  exposition  of  the 
internal  world ;  and  this  it  is  in  all  its  forms  and 
all  their  changes,  in  all  its  laws  and  their  effects. 

Far  more  than  this  is  true  of  the  spiritual  external 
world ;  or  of  the  world  of  which  every  one  has  cog 
nizance  after  death,  and  they  who  still  live  here 
have  cognizance  in  the  degree  in  which  their  spir 
itual  senses  are  open.  In  that  world  this  corre 
spondence  is  not  general  only,  but  most  special  and 
specific.  There,  every  thing  immediately  around  a 
man  is  in  exact  correspondence  with  that  which  is 
in  his  affections  or  his  thoughts. 

The  reason  of  this  difference  is  this.  We  live 
in  this  world  to  change  our  characters,  —  to  change 
them  for  the  better,  radically ;  and  we  can  do  this 
only  by  effort  and  struggle.  Hence  we  need  and 
have  an  external  world,  which  being  vested,  so  to 


154  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

speak,  or  ultimated  in  a  stubborn  and  indurated 
matter,  resists  us.  We  wish  it  something  else  than 
it  is,  for  it  does  not  respond  to  our  feelings  or  desires. 
But  it  does  not  yield  to  us.  It  reacts  against  us. 
Sometimes  we  cannot  even  hope  to  make  it  respon 
sive  to  our  desires,  and  we  make  no  effort.  Some 
times  we  may  hope  to  do  this,  and  we  strive  to  do 
it,  and  our  efforts  are  more  or  less  successful.  This 
man,  for  example,  finds  his  external  circumstances 
painfully  opposed  to  his  wishes.  He  wishes  to  be 
elsewhere  than  where  he  is,  or  to  be  richer,  or  more 
healthy ;  and,  if  he  thinks  success  possible,  he  labors 
to  produce  the  change.  But  whether  his  labors 
effect  this  or  not  depends  upon  whether  it  is  best 
for  him  that  they  should.  Seldom  are  they  per 
fectly  successful ;  or,  if  they  are,  disappointment 
and  unsatisfied  desire  are  sure  to  come  in  some 
other  directions.  All  this  is  because  these  external 
circumstances  which  oppose  his  desires  so  much  are 
just  the  instruments  by  which  Infinite  Love  gives 
him  the  lessons  he  needs,  and  subjects  him  to  the 
discipline  he  requires,  in  order  that  he  may,  by  a 
radical  change  in  his  desires,  —  that  is,  in  his  char 
acter,  —  become  capable  of  true  and  permanent 
happiness. 

It  is  not  so  in  the   other  world.     We  live  here, 
in    time,   to    determine    our    characters,   to    deter- 


MATERIAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  WORLDS  DIFFERENT.      155 

mine  them  for  eternity.  We  die  when  they  are 
so  determined.  Whether  we  do  or  do  not  profit 
by  the  lessons  or  the  discipline  of  love,  depends 
upon  ourselves.  But  when  the  perfect  wisdom 
which  is  one  with  that  perfect  love  sees  that  we 
have  reached  the  point  where  it  is  better  that  this 
conflict  shall  cease,  it  does  cease  :  the  man  dies ; 
that  is,  he  leaves  this  material  world  and  goes  into 
the  spiritual  world;  that  is,  again,  he  loses  all 
sensuous  perception  or  cognizance  of  the  things  of 
this  material  world,  and  comes  into  a  perfect  sen 
suous  perception  and  cognizance  of  the  things  of 
the  spiritual  world. 

At  once  the  scene  is  changed,  and  the  law  is 
changed  which  determines  the  relation  of  the 
external  world  to  the  internal.  The  character  is 
determined.  The  man  no  longer  needs  a  world 
outside  of  him  which  shall  react  forcibly  against  his 
inner  man,  and  he  has  no  such  world.  The  external 
world  now  acts  only  for  and  with  the  internal  world, 
and  does  not  react  forcibly  against  it.  It  is  needed 
only  for  the  manifestation,  the  exercise  and  develop 
ment  of  character,  and  not  for  its  radical  change; 
because  the  time  when  that  was  possible  has  passed 
by  ;  or,  rather,  because  that  could  take  place  only  in 
time.  Therefore  it  is  perfectly  responsive  to  the 
inner  world  ;  not  only  in  general  and  as  a  whole,  but 


156  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

specifically  and  particularly.  And  therefore  each 
and  every  man  finds  in  all  about  him,  which  is  not 
him,  a  ready  instrument  for,  and  an  exact  represen 
tation  of  all  that  is  in  him. 

This  is  true  in  its  whole  extent  and  without  quali 
fication,  only  in  heaven ;  that  is,  only  with  those  in 
whom  character  is  determined  to  goodness.  Few, 
however,  go  thither  from  this  world  at  once,  and 
without  needing  some  discipline  to  liberate  their 
goodness  from  its  enemies  within  them.  They  need 
a  discipline  suited  to  this  purpose.  And  those  who 
do  not  use  aright  the  means  of  salvation  given  them 
go  not  up  to  heaven.  To  spirits  in  the  early  stages 
after  death,  and  to  the  spiritually  dead,  the  external 
spiritual  world  still  responds  to  their  internal  spe 
cifically  and  precisely ;  but  now  to  their  states  and 
their  needs,  and  not  always  to  their  wishes. 

XXVI.     SWEDENBORG. 

Now  let  it  be  remembered  that,  by  the  laws  of 
correspondence,  whatever  appears  outwardly  and 
objectively  represents  and  mirrors  something  within 
the  soul ;  and  then  that  the  Scriptures  were  written 
in  exact  conformity  with  the  laws  of  correspondence ; 
and  it  may  be  seen  why  it  was  necessary  that  he 
whose  mission  it  was  to  learn  the  laws  of  this  new 


SWEDENBOKG.  157 

science  and  apply  them  to  the  letter  of  Scripture, 
and  teach  men  how  to  do  so,  found  in  this  opening 
of  his  spiritual  senses  a  most  potent  instrument  for 
the  instruction  which  he  needed  in  the  nature  and 
working  of  correspondence.  Nor  is  this  all.  Thus 
intromitted  into  the  spiritual  world  while  still  living 
in  the  natural  world,  and  able  to  go  there  and  hear 
and  see  and  learn,  and  then  to  return  hither  and 
put  into  an  abiding  form  the  information  he  thus 
acquired,  he  was  also  able  to  present  this  infor 
mation  to  men  on  earth  in  intelligible  forms,  by 
the  help  of  the  illustration  afforded  by  these  cor 
respondences.  So  he  could  make  us  see  and  feel 
what  goodness  was  and  what  it  led  to,  and  what 
evil  was  and  what  it  led  to,  as  we  could  not  other 
wise. 

This  man  brought  to  the  service  assigned  him  his 
vigorous  powers,  highly  cultivated,  exercised,  and 
disciplined;  and  he  received  instruction  and  infor 
mation  by  means  never  employed  as  to  any  othei 
man,  in  any  thing  approaching  the  same  degree. 
But  he  was  not  inspired.  Between  the  Word  of 
God  and  his  writings  there  is  the  infinite  distance 
which  separates  that  Word  from  all  human  work. 
As  well  as  he  could,  and  we  may  believe  as  well 
as  any  man  could,  he  understood  what  he  was  thus 
taught,  and  gives  to  us.  And  we  may  well  believe, 


158  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

too,  that,  strong  as  he  was,  cultivated  and  pre 
pared  and  taught  as  he  was,  and  employed  as  he 
was,  he  was  guarded  against  important  error.  But 
between  all  this  and  the  inspiration  and  authority 
which  belong  to  the  Word,  there  is  an  infinite  dif 
ference  and  an  infinite  distance. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  Swedenborg  has  given 
us  a  full,  explicit,  and  precise  spiritual  sense  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  throughout  the  Word.  And,  if  not, 
how  can  what  he  gives  us  be  called  a  Revelation  of 
this  spiritual  sense  of  the  Scriptures  ? 

He  has  made  no  such  Revelation.  But  he  has 
declared  the  existence  of  the  science  of  correspond 
ence.  He  has  taught  the  principles  of  this  science 
and  the  laws  of  being  on  which  it  rests.  He  has  dis 
closed  the  spiritual  sense  of  a  part  of  the  Scriptures. 

If  this  be  all,  it  may  be  called  a  most  imperfect 
Revelation.  It  certainly  is  so  in  one  sense ;  and  in 
the  same  sense  every  Revelation  of  the  Infinite  to 
the  finite  must  be  so.  But  as  a  Revelation  it  is 
complete  and  sufficient  for  its  purpose.  Like  every 
other  that  has  been  made,  or  ever  will  be  made,  it  is 
delivered  to  man,  to  be  made  use  of  by  him.  He 
gives  us  the  laws  and  principles  of  this  science,  and 
applications  of  them  which  show  that  there  is  such 
a  science,  and  how  its  laws  and  principles  may  be 
applied. 


SWEDENBOKG.  159 

It  remains  for  us  and  for  all  future  generations  to 
do  our  and  their  part.  We  may  accept  the  Revela 
tion  or  reject  it.  We  may  study  these  laws  and 
principles,  and  endeavor  to  comprehend  them  clearly, 
and  make  farther  and  wider  applications  of  them,  or 
we  may  refuse  to  do  this.  We  may  undertake  this- 
work,  and  do  much  or  little  of  it,  and  we  may  do 
that  well  or  ill. 

All  this  is  given  up  to  our  freedom,  our  choice,  our 
action.  But  if  we  look  into  this  Revelation  until 
we  discern  evidence  of  its  truth,  and  then  endeavor 
to  see  these  truths  yet  more  clearly,  and  make  them 
our  own  by  honest  and  earnest  study  of  them,  not 
only  for  knowledge,  but  for  life,  —  for  all  who  do  this 
the  Word  of  God  will  become  the  Sun  of  our  souls, 
pouring  its  heat  and  its  light  into  our  winter  and 
our  midnight. 

If  such  a  man  as  Swedenborg  tells  us  such  new 
and  important  truth,  why  is  it  not  more  rapidly  and 
more  widely  received  ?  My  answer  is,  it  cannot,  and 
never  can  be,  received  by  any  but  those  who  are 
favorably  disposed  towards  it. 

I  know  perfectly  well  how  readers  who  are  not  of 
the  New  Church,  if  I  have  any  such,  would  under 
stand  this  statement,  and  what  would  be  their  an 
swer.  They  would  say  to  me,  Of  course  it  is  just  as 
you  say.  This  good  and  very  able  man  did  perceive 


160  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

and  has  expressed  some  important  truths  in  religious 
philosophy;  and  some  of  these  —  all  which  could 
stand  the  test  of  rational  investigation  —  have  been 
widely  received,  and  do  now  exert  much  influence 
on  the  best  religious  thought.  But  he  was  an  im 
aginative  man,  devoted  to  his  abstruse  studies,  lead 
ing  a  secluded  life,  and  not  protected  from  the 
vagaries  of  enthusiasm  and  the  delusions  of  imagi 
nation,  either  by  domestic  ties  and  cares,  or  by  the 
work  and  responsibility  of  professional  or  official  life. 

This  last  he  held  until  he  threw  it  aside  at  the  a«-e 

» 

of  fifty-nine,  and  with  it  he  threw  aside  that  which 
had  been  the  barrier  between  him  and  mere  illusion. 
Then  in  his  seclusion,  concentrating  all  his  powers 
in  one  direction  and  indulging  all  the  tendencies  of 
his  character,  his  subjective  notions  became  to  him 
at  last  as  objective  things.  His  profound  conviction 
and  his  vivid  imagination  enabled  him  to  impart  to 
his  account  of  these  things  much  fascination  for 
persons  who  are  like  him,  imaginative  and  enthu 
siastic.  His  own  convictions  he  gives  to  them. 
They  believe  in  him.  And  only  such  persons  can 
believe  in  him. 

Why  would  this  answer  be  made  to  me  ?  Is  it 
because  what  he  has  said  of  super-natural  things,  or 
what  he  has  related  from  his  spiritual  experience,  is 
in  itself  irrational  ?  Not  in  the  least.  Certainly  I 


SWEDENBORG.  161 

have  never  known  or  heard  of  any  one  who  had 
investigated  these  things  sufficiently  to  form  a  defi 
nite  and  well  grounded  opinion  of  them,  and  who 
formed  that  opinion.  It  is  because  saying  any  thing 
whatever  of  super-natural  facts,  or  speaking  of  spir 
itual  experience,  seems  in  itself  irrational,  contrary 
to  reason.  And  it  is  entirely  contrary  to  merely 
natural  reason, — so  contrary,  that,  when  this  reason 
is  listened  to  as  a  competent  judge  of  these  questions, 
it  cannot  hut  be  deemed  irrational.  And  we  live  in 
days  when  the  spiritual  faculties  have  little  power 
or  authority,  while  the  natural  faculties  have  vast 
power  and  almost  complete  authority.  The  expla 
nation  of  Swedenborg's  state  and  condition,  which  I 
have  supposed  to  be  made  by  those  who  do  not  re 
ceive  his  narrations  of  spiritual  facts  and  events  as 
true,  is  exceedingly  plausible.  It  is  indeed  entirely 
satisfactory  to  those  whose  habits  of  thought  and 
faith  make  it  impossible  for  them  to  believe  any 
definite  statements  concerning  spiritual  existences, 
although  they  are  able  to  receive  some,  perhaps 
much,  of  the  new  truth  taught  by  him.  It  is  well 
for  them  that  so  plausible  an  explanation  can  be 
made;  for  otherwise  they  would  be  compelled  to 
reject  him  altogether,  and  thus  lose  what  they  now 
gain  and  may  profit  by. 

But  they  who  believe  these  statements  of  Sweden- 
11 


162  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

borg  do  not  regard  them  as  isolated  and  independent 
facts.  They  constitute  a  material  part  of  a  system 
of  truth  which  is  most  comprehensive  and  reaches 
to  the  inmost  depths  of  thought.  They  are  in  har 
mony  with  the  principles  of  that  system;  and  the 
general  facts  he  states  might  be  inferred,  without 
his  statement,  from  the  principles  and  laws  of  that 
system.  And  while  these  principles  and  laws  ex 
plain  those  facts,  the  facts  in  their  turn  illustrate 
those  laws  and  principles,  and  make  plain  to  us  their 
meaning,  working,  and  results. 

In  the  light  of  that  system,  we  see  that  there  is 
another  world ;  that  there  must  be  a  world  of  spirit 
and  of  eternity,  to  account  for  this  world  of  matter 
and  of  time.  And  we  see,  too,  that  the  world  of 
spirit  must  be  such  a  world  as  that  which  he  de 
scribes.  Because  his  system  is  a  whole,  and  between 
all  its  parts  there  is  harmony  and  congruity,  all 
support  all;  they  illustrate  and  prove  each  other. 
We  believe  in  the  laws  of  being  which  he  teaches, 
all  the  more  because  in  his  narratives  of  spiritual 
existence  we  can  see  and  understand  how  these 
laws  operate  and  what  they  effect.  We  believe  his 
narratives,  the  more  because  they  so  perfectly  con 
form  to  the  laws  of  being  which  he  states.  Insanity 
is  not  so  coherent,  and  mere  imagination  not  so 
rational.  In  a  word  these  narratives  must  be  true 


SPIRITISM.  163 

if  those  laws  exist  and  operate,  and  those  laws  must 
exist  and  operate  if  these  narratives  are  true.  Nor 
is  this  reasoning  in  a  vicious  circle.  How  many  of 
the  most  important  conclusions  of  natural  science 
have  been  reached  and  are  now  held,  because  the 
proof  of  the  facts  on  which  they  rest  is  strengthened 
by  their  harmony  with  the  laws  which  explain  them, 
and  which  in  their  turn  they  illustrate. 

All  this  is  nothing  to  habitual  naturalistic  belief, 
which  is  the  prevailing  belief  of  the  age.  When  I 
say  this,  I  may  be  referred  to 

• 

XXVII.     SPIRITISM. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  rapid  growth  an'd  present 
prevalence  of  Spiritism  is  a  proof  that  I  am  mis 
taken  as  to  the  character  and  tendency  of  the  age, 
because  it  proves  that  the  spiritual  faculties  are  not 
only  awake  and  active,  but  eager  to  seize,  with 
indiscriminating  hunger,  upon  whatever  is  offered 
them.  To  this  I  reply  that  Spiritism  (I  think  this 
is  a  more  appropriate  word  than  Spiritualism),  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able,  not  without  some  effort,  to  un 
derstand  it,  is  the  most  purely  natural  belief  that 
has  ever  been  held  among  men,  and  that  its  quick 
and  wide  reception  is  a  cogent  proof  of  the  present 
feebleness  and  inaction  of  the  spiritual  faculties. 


164 


THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 


I  have  used  both  the  words  "external"  and  "nat 
ural"  in  preceding  pages,  but  the  last  much  more 
frequently.  They  are,  however,  when  used  in  this 
connection,  synonymous  and  interchangeable.  The 
peculiarity,  I  might  almost  say  the  definition,  of  the 
natural  faculties,  is,  that  they  are  employed  exclu 
sively  about  the  external  world.  There  is  in  the 
other  life  an  external  world  just  as  much  as  there 
is  in  this  world.  It  is  like  this,  but  with  a  differ 
ence.  It  is  perfectly  like  this  in  this  respect,  —  that 
there  are  faculties  perfectly  adapted  to  it.  They 
are  the  same  which  I  have  called  natural  faculties, 
and  have  said  to  be  adapted  to  this  external  world. 
They  belong  to  the  body  and  to  external  life  here ; 
and  because  man  has  a  body  and  external  life  there, 
to  which  these  external  faculties  are  suited  and  are 
necessary,  he  has  these  faculties  there.  They  are 
there,  when  subordinated  to  and  wisely  used  by  the 
spiritual  faculties,  instruments  of  immeasurable  value. 
They  are  there,  when  they  suppress  the  spiritual 
faculties  or  rule  over  them,  just  as  disastrous  in 
their  influence  and  effect  as  they  are  here.  And 
those  who  go  from  this  world  with  a  purely  natural 
character  retain  it  there,  and  find  an  external  world 
adapted  to  it,  and  continue  to  be  for  ever  just  as 
natural  as  they  were  in  this  world. 

Most  true  it  is  that,  but  for  the  spiritual  faculties 


SPIRITISM.  165 

which  man  possesses,  he  could  not  have  the  first 
thought  of  life  after  death.  But  it  is  equally  true 
that  the  natural  faculties  may  seize  hold  of  this  truth, 
make  it  their  own,  use  it  or  abuse  it  as  their  own. 
The  spiritual  sensuous  faculties  necessarily  awake  at 
death.  If  only  this  were  needed  for  man's  instruc 
tion,  if  a  knowledge  that  there  was  another  world, 
and  that  man  had  a  body  and  sensories  which  would 
make  it  a  home  for  him,  were  all  that  was  required 
to  make  man  wise,  all  men  would  be  made  wise  by 
death.  But  death,  of  itself,  or  an  awakening  after 
death,  does  nothing  to  make  men  wiser  or  sillier, 
better  or  worse.  They  rise  in  that  world  just  what 
they  were  in  this  world.  They  may  reject  every 
supersensual  truth,  and  every  religious  truth,  and 
exclude  every  religious  affection,  just  as  effectually 
and  thoroughly  there  as  here. 

The  external  or  sensuous  spiritual  faculties  may 
be  called  spiritual  in  so  far  as  they  belong  to  the 
spirit.  But  when  they  are  not  elevated  by  and  gov 
erned  by  the  higher  spiritual  faculties,  the  man  him 
self  is  just  as  much  an  external  man,  or  a  merely 
natural  man,  as  he  was  before  death  substituted  the 
sensuous  spiritual  faculties  for  the  sensuous  natural 
faculties  which  were  open  here. 

Such  persons  are  very  numerous  in  the  other 
'world-  and  they  are  drawn  by  the  attraction  of 


166  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

affinity  to  such  persons  here.  And,  when  both  par 
ties  have  a  certain  impressibility  of  the  spiritual  sen- 
sories,  those  who  live  here  become  mediums ;  and 
those  who  live  there  talk  through  them ;  and,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  nearly  all  they  say  is 
pure  naturalism.  They  may  personate  —  for  what  I 
know,  they  may  be  weak  enough  to  believe  that 
they  are  —  departed  friends  of  those  who  seek  them, 
or  the  great  and  good  men  whose  names  they  take, 
and  whose  authority  they  try  to  give  to  words  which 
such  men  could  not  utter  unless  their  intellects  were 
wofully  clouded. 

It  is  among  the  peculiarities  of  the  other  world 
which  distinguish  it  from  this,  that  there  thoughts 
and  feelings  are  known ;  that  is,  as  a  general  thing, 
they  are  perceptible  and  are  seen  to  be  what  they  are. 
The  good  do  not  desire  it  to  be  otherwise :  the  bad 
cannot  prevent  it.  The  spirits  who  come  to  the  me 
diums,  and  address  themselves  to  those  who  seek 
them,  and  may  be  supposed  to  be  for  the  most  part 
like  them,  find  little  difficulty  in  knowing  what  is 
passing  in  the  visitors'  minds,  and  in  making  use  of 
it  to  make  their  communications  such  as  will  give 
them  possession  and  control  of  their  visitors.  But 
good  spirits  would  shrink  from  this  with  aversion 
and  dread.  They  know  too  well  the  value  of  free 
dom  to  wish  to  impair  it  in  others.  These  evil  spirits 


,  (UN:    sasn 


would,  if  they  could,  possess  the  vei 
suppliants,  and  they  do  take  possession  of  their  minds. 
They  may,  if  they  see  that  it  would  help  them,  sim 
ulate  enough  of  religion  to  answer  their  purpose. 
But,  for  the  most  part,  —  and  I  do  not  know  enough 
of  their  writings  to  justify  me  in  speaking  more 
strongly,  —  they  teach  only  the  falsities  of  natur 
alism,  and  inspire  only  corresponding  affections. 

Each  of  the  words  "  natural "  and  "  spiritual "  is 
used  in  two  senses.  By  natural  we  may  mean  the 
faculties  or  qualities  which  belong  to  man  by  birth 
and  are  adapted  to  earthly  life,  and  are  also  adapted 
to  be  instruments  of  higher  faculties  in  the  prepara 
tion  for  a  higher  life,  and  in  the  enjoyment  and  use 
of  the  external  world  in  another  life.  And  when  we 
speak  of  natural  faculties  we  may  mean  this.  Or 
we  may  mean  these  faculties  or  qualities  when  they 
are  confined  to  external  life,  and,  renouncing  all 
subordination  to  the  higher  faculties,  either  suppress 
or  pervert  them;  and  then  and  thus  they  fill  the 
heart  and  life  with  worldliness  and  selfishness. 

So  we  may  mean  by  spiritual  only  what  belongs 
to  man  as  a  spirit,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad.  Or 
we  may  mean  that  condition  which  results  from 
the  rightful  employment  of  the  higher  faculties. 

So  far  as  the  naturalism  of  these  days  is  merely 
the  negation  of  any  thing  of  life  after  death,  spirit- 


168  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

ism  opposes  it,  and  finds  no  difficulty  in  the  relations 
of  Swedenborg.  But,  so  far  as  naturalism  clings  to 
mere  earthliness  of  character,  —  or,  to  say  the  same 
thing  in  other  words,  so  far  as  it  renounces  God,  and 
with  God  all  true  religion,  admitting  none  but  what 
is  consistent  with  self- worship,  —  it  is  utterly  opposed 
to  the  doctrines  taught  by  Swedenborg.  His  doc 
trines  "  give  to  God  the  glory  "  of  all  the  goodness 
which  man  has  from  Him ;  for  them  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  is  our  God;  to  them  the  Scriptures  are 
the  Word  of  God ;  they  command  self-denial,  and 
purity  of  life,  affection,  and  thought ;  and  they  give 
to  the  marriage  relation  sanctity,  purity,  and  per 
manence.  To  all  this  naturalism  is  antagonistic, 
and  the  naturalism  of  spiritism  almost  entirely  so. 
I  remember  some  spiritist  writings  —  among  them 
a  book  by  an  English  lady,  entitled  "  From  Matter 
to  Spirit "  —  which  were  certainly  religious.  But  I 
have  met  with  very  few  of  this  kind. 

The  mere  knowledge  that  there  is  another  life  is 
not  in  itself  of  the  slightest  value.  Indeed  it  may  do 
harm  by  taking  off  the  fetters  of  fear  from  those  who 
would  only  abuse  their  recovered  freedom.  Hence 
Divine  Providence  has  permitted  the  grave  to  cast 
such  deep  shadows  over  the  whole  earth.  Nor  have 
former  revelations  made  the  certainty  of  a  future 
life  —  by  giving  the  ground  and  manner  of  its  being 


WHO   RECEIVE    THE    LATEST   REVELATION.       169 

as  well  as  the  fact  of  its  being  —  such  that  most 
men  were  able  to  go  farther  than  cling  to  a  hope. 
Spiritism  is  no  revelation ;  and,  if  it  does  more  in 
reference  to  the  spiritual  world,  there  is  too  much 
of  it  which,  if  it  comes  thence  and  is  not  mere  illu 
sion,  comes  up  from  the  depths  of  self-love  and  self- 
worship,  and  drags  its  votaries  thither. 

XXVIH.    WHO   RECEIVE    THE   LATEST   REVELATION. 

Let  me  return  to  my  remark  that  none  can  receive 
the  doctrines  of  Swedenborg  who  are  not  favorably 
disposed  towards  them.  There  is  not,  there  never 
was,  and  never  will  be,  any  religious  truth  ever 
given  to  man,  which  was  not  and  will  not  be  so 
given  that,  while  he  who  loves  it  may  be  convinced 
of  its  truth  on  rational  grounds,  they  who  have  no 
love  for  it  may  reject  it  on  grounds  which  seem 
to  them  equally  rational. 

This  is  a  most  important  law,  or  fact;  and  the 
reason  for  it  is  not  far  to  seek.  We  need  but  look 
to  the  love  of  God.  We  need  but  remember  that 
Infinite  Love  must  desire  to  do  for  man  the  best 
that  can  be  done,  to  give  to  man  the  best  that  can  be 
received.  And  surely  it  must  not  be  difficult  to  see 
that  the  best  happiness  that  man  can  have  must  con 
sist  in  his  choice  of  all  goodness  in  his  own  perfect 


170  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

freedom ;  and  therefore  this  freedom  is  an  essential 
element  in  the  life  given  to  man  to  be  his  own,  and 
cannot  be  wholly  lost  out  of  that  life  without  his 
ceasing  to  be  human.  Infinite  wisdom  is  in  God 
one  with  infinite  love;  and  in  their  perfect  union 
they  make  Him  to  be  one  God.  Wisdom  in  action 
becomes  order ;  and  perfect  wisdom  becomes  perfect 
order,  divine  order:  and  it  is  this  and  this  only 
which  imposes  limits  to  Omnipotence;  but  these 
limits  are  never  passed.  Hence,  while  all  is  done 
that  Omnipotence  can  do  to  lead  men  to  choose 
goodness  instead  of  evil,  truth  instead  of  falsity, 
nothing  more  is  done  by  Omnipotence.  Nothing 
more  can  be  done  by  Divine  Omnipotence,  for  the 
very  reason  that  it  is  the  omnipotence  of  perfect 
love  and  perfect  wisdom. 

While  in  this  truth  we  have  the  key  to  the  whole 
providence  of  God,  in  nothing  is  its  explanation 
clearer  or  more  necessary  than  in  the  questions 
which  spring  from  the  form  and  character  of  all  rev 
elations.  Never  was  there  one,  and  never  can  be, 
which  is  not  either  received  and  rightly  used,  or 
else  rejected  or  perverted  and  falsified,  just  as  he 
to  whom  it  is  given  CHOOSES. 

To  speak  only  of  the  Old  Testament,  —  its  obscu 
rity,  and  utter  failure  to  compel  a  reception  of 
truths  which  they  who  choose  to  receive  find  to  be 


WHO   RECEIVE    THE    LATEST   REVELATION.      171 

inexpressible  blessings,  are  thus  accounted  for.  And 
so  of  the  Gospels.  Their  seeming  contradictions, 
indefinite  statements,  and  mere  hints  and  sugges 
tions  of  profound  truths,  have,  on  the  oneliand,  led 
to  much  doubt  and  denial,  and,  on  the  other,  to  all 
manner  of  perversions  of  religious  doctrines.  But 
they  have  never  hindered  those  who  came  to  them 
as  to  wells  of  living  waters,  to  be  cleansed  and  healed, 
and  to  learn  the  way  of  life.  Our  Lord  spoke  in 
parables,  and  "  without  a  parable  spake  he  not  unto 
them."  He  himself  gives  the  reason  ibr  this.  And, 
when  this  reason  is  understood,  it  is  seen  that  it  was 
this  infinite  mercy  which  clothed  the  divine  truth 
he  uttered  in  the  clouds  of  parable ;  and  that  from 
the  same  mercy  He  has  now  come  in  these  clouds. 
But  still  they  are  clouds.  And  still  clouds  and 
darkness  must  be  about  his  throne. 

This  law  will  help  us  to  understand  many  of  the 
peculiarities  in  the  writings  of  Swedenborg,  which  — 
while  wholly  uninspired,  and  forming  no  part  of  and 
no  substitute  for  the  Word  of  God  —  are  the  instru 
ments  of  the  latest  revelation.  They  make  him  a 
hard  author  for  many  to  read.  They  do  not  present 
doctrine  in  a  clear  and  analytic  form,  beginning 
from  elementary  principles,  advancing  along  a  plain 
and  easy  way,  and  leading  the  mind,  as  by  a  pleasant 
journey,  to  results  which  cannot  but  be  reached. 


172  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

It  is  the  infinite  desire  of  God  to  enlarge  man's 
freedom;  to  make  it  pure,  perfect,  constant.  And 
His  successive  revelations  advance  in  this  direction. 
That  given  to  the  Jews  was  sustained  by  tremen 
dous  instruments,  —  by  plague,  famine,  war,  and 
captivity.  But  these  were  so  adjusted,  that  even 
they  could  not  compel  a  constant  and  universal  obe 
dience,  although  they  did  promote  and  cause  much 
of  that  external  obedience  which  alone  was  and  is 
possible  to  the  Jewish  character,  in  the  Jews  of  old, 
or  in  us. 

Then  came  the  first  Christian  revelation.  This 
was  supported  by  miracles.  But  they  were  no 
longer  miracles  of  seeming  wrath.  They  were  mir 
acles  of  love ;  not  more  so  in  fact  than  the  sanctions 
of  the  Jewish  law,  but  that  the  love  from  which  they 
flowed  was  manifest  in  them.  They  were  miracles 
not  of  coercion,  but  of  conviction.  And  who  needs 
to  be  reminded  how  little  power  they  have  exerted 
when  they  were  opposed  by  the  inertia  of  indiffer 
ence,  or,  more  actively,  by  the  hostility  of  sin  and 
self-love? 

Then  comes  the  second,  the  consummating,  Chris 
tian  revelation.  And  now  not  only  are  all  miracles 
withheld,  but  the  means  and  method  of  this  revela 
tion  are  such,  that,  while  it  gives  itself  like  sunlight 
to  the  soul  whose  windows  are  opened,  it  is  wholly 


THE    WORD    OF    GOD    CANNOT   PASS   AWAY.       173 

unable  to  penetrate  the  barriers  interposed  by  any 
want  of  inclination  for  the  good  to  which  this  truth 
leads.  And  this  is  what  I  mean,  when  I  say  that 
the  truths  of  this  revelation  can  be  received  only  by 
those  who  are  favorably  disposed  towards  them. 
Never  let  it  be  forgotten  that  truth  alone  is  only 
like  the  light  of  the  coldest  winter  day,  that  is 
utterly  incapable  of  awakening  into  life  the  dead 
earth  which  it  floods  with  brightness.  Well  is  it 
for  them  who  seek  truth  for  something  else  than 
the  good  of  life  to  which  it  leads,  that  their  eyes 
are  holden. 

XXIX.     THE   WORD    OP   GOD    CANNOT   PASS    AWAY. 

The  word  of  God,  and  whatsoever  belongs  to  it, 
is  infinite  and  eternal.  Plague,  famine,  war,  and  cap 
tivity  are  still  the  sanctions  of -divine  truth.  But  it 
is  now  the  pestilence  which  works  within  the-  soul, 
and  smites  that,  if  truth  be  rejected,  with  leprosy 
and  palsy  and  spiritual  death.  It  is  "  a  famine  not 
of  bread  nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  for  hearing  the 
words  of  God."  It  is  war,  our  own  war  with  the 
enemies  of  our  souls ;  and  it  is  captivity  when  they 
have  made  us  captive. 

When  our  Lord  said,  "Believe  me  for  the  very 
works'  sake,"  His  words  expressed,  as  all  the  words 


174  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE   FINITE. 

of  Him  who  spake  not  as  man  speaks  ever  expressed, 
an  infinite  and  eternal  truth.  In  these  days,  also, 
we  must  believe  for  the  very  works'  sake,  —  yes,  for 
the  sake  of  the  same  miracles ;  nor  can  we  believe, 
nor  do  we  ever  believe  wholly  and  heartily  in  Him 
by  the  power  of  whose  Word  they  are  wrought,  on 
any  other  ground. 

But  now  we  believe  for  the  sake  of  these  miracles 
when  their  vestments  of  earth  are  cast  off,  and  they 
are  transfigured  into  miracles  of  the  spirit,  —  mir 
acles  worked  in  our  spirits  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Then  we  do  indeed  believe  in  Him ;  for  we  are  sure 
that  He  has  fed  our  famine  with  the  bread  of  life, 
and  slaked  our  thirst  with  the  water  of  life.  He 
has  lifted  us  from  the  bed  whereon  the  fever  of 
selfishness  had  laid  us  prostrate,  and  made  us  whole 
that  we  might  minister  to  Him ;  He  has  healed  our 
sicknesses,  He  has  strengthened  our  weakness,  He 
has  opened  our  eyes  and  our  ears,  and  we  no  longer 
walk  lamely  along  the  paths  of  life :  we  are  raised 
from  spiritual  death  to  spiritual  life.  I  say  we  are 
raised,  that  we  do  all  this,  that  we  believe  thus :  I 
mean  only  that  this  possibility  is  placed  before  us. 
And,  while  we  know  that  we  have  as  yet  only 
touched  the  hem  of  His  garment,  we  may  perhaps 
have  reason  to  believe  that  some  power  has  come 
forth  from  Him.  And,  if  it  has,  it  fills  us  with  un- 


FUTURE    REVELATIONS.  175 

clouded  faith,  a  hope  to  which  there  is  no  limit,  and 
a  humility  which  casts  Self  prostrate  at  His  feet. 

XXX.    FUTURE    REVELATIONS. 

I  have  called  this  a  consummating  revelation.  It 
may  be  that  many  successive  revelations  may  be 
needed,  and  therefore  given,  to  explain  and  complete 
this.  But  there  would  seem  to  be  a  valid  reason  for 
believing  that  no  one  will  ever  stand  in  the  same 
relation  to  this,  which  this  holds  to  all  by  which  it 
has  been  preceded. 

Infinite  wisdom,  and  this  is  absolute  and  perfect 
wisdom,  expresses  itself  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
They  are  the  Word  of  God.  This  infinite  wisdom 
is  hidden  under  the  letter.  But  it  is  all  within  the 
letter.  It  is  there  not  conventionally  and  arbitrarily, 
but  by  the  same  law  which  governs  the  creation  of 
the  universe  and  all  the  acts  of  infinite  power.  For 
this  law  is  the  law  of  correspondence.  By  this  law 
the  wisdom  of  God  expresses  itself  in  the  works  of 
God.  They  are  its  image  and  its  continent,  and 
they  are  its  exponent  to  all  who  can  discern  their 
meaning.  This  is  true  still  more  emphatically  of 
His  Word.  As  a  man's  thoughts  dwell  in  his  words 
and  are  clothed  by  them,  and  as  we  understand  his 
thoughts  in  the  degree  in  which  his  words  are  their 


176  THE  INFINITE  AND  THE  FINITE. 

adequate  expression  and  we  understand  them,  pre 
cisely  so,  but  in  an  infinite  degree,  the  whole  wisdom 
of  God  dwells  in  His  Word  and  is  clothed  by  it. 
He  has  made  the  letter  the  adequate  expression  of 
that  wisdom.  The  only  thing  that  remains  is  that 
we  should  understand  His  word. 

By  this  latest  revelation  He  has  given  to  men  the 
means  of  doing  this.  As  yet  we  can  do  it  only 
in  a  very  external  way,  and  most  imperfectly.  But 
He  gave  to  his  servant  Swedenborg  instruction 
which  enabled  him  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the 
science  of  religion  and  religious  philosophy,  by  giv 
ing  to  us  their  most  important  principles.  These 
principles  are  now  within  reach  of  the  spiritual 
faculties  of  man;  and  his  natural  faculties,  if  the 
lower  be  subordinated  to  the  higher,  will  all  co 
operate  in  the  comprehension,  application,  and  use 
of  these  principles. 

This  progress  must  be  gradual  and  slow,  but  it  will 
be  eternal.  The  science  of  religion,  like  every  true 
science,  must  begin  with  its  elements,  and  advance 
with  successive  steps.  This  advance  will  never  end. 
As  men  grow  wiser  in  their  understanding  of  the 
Word,  it  will  be  to  them  what  it  is  now  to  men  who 
have  become  angels.  It  will  become  to  men  the 
Word  of  God  as  that  exists  in  the  heavens.  But 
there  two  are  all  degrees  of  thig  wisdom,  and  in 


HE    COMES    WITH   POWEE.  177 

each  degree  a  constant  advance.  This  advance,  as 
it  is  constant,  so  it  will  be  eternal ;  and  yet  it  will 
never  ascend  to  its  source,  for  that  is  the  inmost  of 
the  mind  of  God.  And  this  must  ever  be  infinitely 
above  the  highest  elevation  to  which  created  and 
finite  intellects  can  ascend. 

XXXI.    HE    COMES    WITH   POWEK. 

When  our  Lord  said  that  He  would  at  some  future 
time  be  seen  to  come  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  He 
also  said  that  He  would  come  "  with  power." 

When  has  He  not  come  with  power  ?  The  Crea 
tor  of  all  things,  infinite,  and  therefore  All  in  All, 
All  in  all  things  always  and  everywhere,  in  what 
grain  of  sand,  in  what  blossom  that  opens  under  his 
sunshine  and  his  rain,  in  what  insect  that  draws  the 
breath  of  life  and  of  enjoyment,  does  He  not  come 
with  power?  But  He  said,  "They  shall  see  the  Son 
of  man  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  great 
power."  This  is  the  prophecy  that  is  now  fulfilled. 
Men  may  now  see  this  power  which  is  put  forth  in 
all  that  is,  but  has  hitherto  been  hidden  under  a 
veil  that  was  always  thick  and  but  imperfectly  trans 
parent,  and  now  is  lifted. 

There  is  still  another  and  a  higher  meaning  to 
this  prophecy,  and  this  too  has  been  fulfilled. 
12 


178  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

The  Word  of  God  is  His  instrument.    "  All  things 
were  made  by  Him."     But  most  especially  did  this 
Word,  this  infinite  wisdom,  take  on  the  form  of 
human  words,  that  as  the  written  Word  it  might 
come  to  men,  to  cleanse    and   purify  and    elevate 
them,  and  lead  them  to  happiness  and  to  Himself 
And  how  has  this  power  of  the  Divine  Word  been 
now  increased?     It  has  become  more  than  it  was, 
in  the  measure  in  which  spirit  "is  more  than  mat 
ter,  eternity  more  than  time.     It  is  as  if  the  arm  of 
the  Lord  had  been  made  bare.     Still,  however,  as 
in  the  past,  so  always  the  putting  forth  of  this  power 
must  be  governed  by  that  wisdom  which  is  one  with 
the  love  that  fills  it.     Still  it  must  respect  man's 
freedom ;  that  freedom  which  it  seeks  to  free  from 
all  obstruction,  to  enlarge  and  to  establish.     Still, 
men  who  crucify  Him  by  denial,  indifference,  or  dis 
obedience,  will  continue  to  rend  his  outer  garment 
—  the  literal  sense  of  His  Word  —  into  pieces,  each 
holding    that    fragment    which    his    own    depraved 
character  can  most  easily  reduce  to  become  its  in 
strument  ;  and  still  will  the  Lord  withhold  his  inner 
garment,  one  and  without   seam,   from   them  who 
would  rend  that  also,  or  profane  or  pervert  it,  or 
cast  it  idly  away,  as  men  would  cast  away  a  pearl 
when  they  had  no  knowledge  of  its  value  and  no 
eyes  for  its  beauty. 


HE    COMES    WITH   POWER.  1.79 

If  this  latest  revelation  be  what  it  declares  itself 
to  be,  it  must.be  true  that  some  reject  it  because  it 
is  above  their  capacity  or  their  desire  for  goodness. 
But  it  is  not  true,  it  is  very  far  indeed  from  true, 
that  none  reject  it  and  none  are  ignorant  of  it,  but 
those  who  are  thus  low  in  character.  A  very  differ 
ent  reason  may  operate  with  the  majority  of  those 
who  know  nothing  of  this  revelation,  or  who,  know 
ing  something,  reject  what  they  know.  This  reason 
is  simply  that  it  does  not  suit  them.  The  blind  man, 
opening  his  eyes  for  the  first  time  on  a  noon-day 
sun,  would  not  be  more  dazzled  by  the  intolerable 
light,  than  we  should  be  were  our  eyes  opened  to 
the  wonderful  adaptation  to  our  needs  of  the  means 
provided  for  our  salvation ;  and  the  special  and  pre 
cise  adaptation  of  these  means  to  the  special  and 
precise  needs  and  possibilities  of  every  individual. 
What  each  one  requires,  and  can  make  use  of  to 
help  him  on  his  upward  path,  must  depend  greatly 
on  his  inherite'd  character,  and  on  the  circumstances 
about  him,  and  on  all  the  habits  of  his  education, 
thought,  and  life.  These  must  determine  what  is 
best  for  him,  both  as  to  the  spiritual  truth  presented 
to  him,  and  as  to  the  manner  of  its  presentation. 

Hence  we  may  explain  the  marvellous  failure  of 
the  vast  efforts  of  Christian  missionaries  among  the 
neathen.  Ages  ago  Catholic  priests  went  among 


180  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

the  same  peoples,  and  "  converted "  them  by  thou 
sands.  But  the  conversion  was  almost  wholly  exter 
nal,  extending  but  little  beyond  name  and  ritual,  and 
reaching  to  forms  only  and  not  to  faith.  And  such 
a  conversion  might  do  some  good,  and  could  not  do 
much  harm.  But  now  the  effort  is  to  make  the 
heathen  discard  old  doctrines  and  accept  new  ones. 
And  it  is  nothing  less  than  wonderful  that  efforts 
which  are  so  earnest  and  so  persistent  should  be  so 
ineffectual.  There  may  be  other  reasons  for  this, 
but  there  is  reason  enough  in  the  simple  fact  that 
the  religion  of  the  missionaries  does  not  suit  their 
hearers,  is  not  adapted  to  perform  for  them  the 
only  use  which  religion  can  perform,  —  that  of  lift 
ing  their  thoughts  and  affections  to  our  Father  in 
heaven,  and  to  the  truths  and  laws  He  has  given 
His  children  as  the  rules  of  life. 

Very  various  are  these  systems  of  religious  truth ; 
for  they  need  to  be  so,  that  they  may  be  adapted  to 
the  various  states  of  those  to  whom  they  are  given. 
No  Christian  man  can  doubt  that  Christianity  is,  in 
itself,  better  than  heathenism,  but  it  is  better  for 
some  and  not  for  all ;  and  there  is  not  and  never  was 
a  heathenism  which,  with  all  its  follies  and  falsities, 
had  not  in  itself  the  means  of  salvation ;  and  it  seems 
only  a  reasonable  inference  from  all  we  see  and 
learn,  that  this  day  as  many  persons  find  and  use 


AND    WITH    GREAT    GLORY.  181 

these  means,  as  there  are  those  who  find  them  ID 
Christianity,  and  that  they  use  them  as  effectually. 

We  who  have  faith  in  this  latest  revelation  must 
of  course  believe  that  it  is  in  advance  of  all  that 
have  come  before  it.  But  we  do  not  think  that  we, 
personally,  are  in  advance  of  all  that  are  outside  our 
boundaries;  and  God  forbid  that  we  should  be  so 
blind  as  not  to  see  in  some  of  those  who  know 
nothing  of  our  doctrines,  —  or,  knowing  them,  can 
not  see  their  truth,  —  purity,  charity,  living  faith, 
and  excellence  of  motive  and  of  conduct,  before 
which  we  bow  with  reverence,  and  in  which  we 
would  find  examples  and  incentives. 

XXXII.    AND   WITH    GREAT    GLORY. 

Yes,  with  all  glory ;  for  the  glory  of  the  whole 
earth,  of  the  whole  universe,  of  matter  and  of  spirit, 
is  now  His.  He  "  has  taken  to  Himself  his  great 
power,  and  reigns."  He  may  now  be  seen  to  be  the 
king  of  all  things,  and,  more,  the  life  of  all  things. 
His  reign  is  a  reign  of  love,  not  merely  because  it  is 
animated  and  governed  by  love,  but  because  it  is 
love,  His  love,  which  creates  all  things  for  the 
reception  of  itself,  and  flowing  into  them  becomes 
their  life. 

All  valid  and  enduring  advance  in  human  charac- 


182  THE   INFINITE   AND    THE   FINITE. 

ter  is  an  advance  in  the  knowledge  of  God.  So,  too, 
all  advance  in  successive  revelations  lies  in  their 
enlargement  of  the  means  of  knowing  Him.  To 
the  Jews  it  was  given  to  know  that  He  was  One 
and  sovereign.  They  were  to  be  the  custodians  and 
publishers  of  this  transcendent  truth.  But  for  the 
hardness  of  their  hearts  they  were  permitted  to  be 
lieve  that  He  was  especially  their  God,  and  they 
especially  His  people,  and  the  objects  of  his  favor. 
When  our  Lord  walked  on  earth,  a  man  with  men, 
he  revealed,  both  by  His  words  and  His  acts,  far 
more  of  the  true  nature  and  actual  working  of  the 
Father  within  Him,  that,  seeing  Him,  they  might 
know  the  Father.  And  this  latest  revelation  ex 
plains  His  words  and  acts,  and  gives  those  central 
truths  concerning  Him  from  which  all  light  may 
flow  forth,  and  those  organizing  truths  which  will 
some  day  build  up  in  heavenly  forms  the  structures 
of  human  belief,  concerning  Him  who  may  now  be 
known  as  our  God,  our  Creator,  our  Redeemer,  our 
Lord  and  our  Saviour. 

Already  the  disciple  that  Jesus  loved  had  said 
that  "  God  is  Love."  Beautiful  the  light,  enduring 
the  strength,  unspeakable  the  consolation,  these 
words  have  given  where  light  and  strength  and  con 
solation  were  most  needed,  although  none  have 
understood  these  words  as  meaning  more  than  that 


AND    WITH    GREAT    GLORY.  183 

God  was  perfectly  loving.  But  we  know  now  what 
is  the  essence  of  love :  it  is  the  desire  to  give  of  its 
own  to  others,  to  give  of  itself,  to  give  itself.  This 
desire  is  infinite  in  God.  It  leads  him  to  create 
those  who  may  receive  his  gifts;  to  create  them 
with  capacities  of  reception  of  every  degree,  and 
then  to  fill  those  capacities  with  Himself. 

He  gives  to  all  men,  always,  all  the  truth  and  all 
the  good  aflections,  yea,  all  the  life  and  being,  that 
they  have.  His  is  a  divine  giving,  and  therefore  a 
most  actual  and  perfect  giving.  It  is  so  complete 
and  perfect,  that  man  can  own  nothing  so  perfectly 
as  he  owns  himself;  and  he  owns  most  that  which 
most  essentially  constitutes  himself.  How  feeble  is 
his  hold  upon  natural  possessions!  They  are  his 
but  for  a  moment,  and  even  then  but  imperfectly 
his.  But  his  spiritual  possessions,  the  thoughts  of  his 
understanding  and  the  afiections  of  his  will  and 
his  very  life,  are  perfectly  his  own.  And  yet  all  the 
while  they  flow  into  him  from  the  Father  of  his  be 
ing,  by  a  constant  flow  and  as  a  constant  gift.  His 
life  is  thus  his  own,  constituting  him  himself,  be 
cause  the  infinite  desire  of  God  to  give  Himself  to 
man  leads  Him  to  make  man  such  that  he  possesses 
the  power  of  receiving  the  divine  life,  and  holding  it 
as  his  own.  Because  this  human  life  is  thus,  most 
really  and  permanently,  his  own,  he  is  not  a  lesser 


184  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

God,  he  is  not  a  part  of  God :  he  is  a  man,  he  is  him 
self;  and  he  never  can  be  lost  in  God,  never  can  be 
merged  in  the  Divine  Being,  never  can  lose  his  own 
identity.  The  doctrine  of  final  absorption  into  God 
prevailed  in  some  of  the  old  religions  after  they 
had  become  perverted,  and  lingers  in  them  still  as 
they  linger  upon  earth.  And  on  examination  we 
should  see  evidence  of  its  greater  prevalence  among 
Christians  in  past  and  present  ages  than  would  at 
first  be  supposed.  But  it  is  totally  false.  Man  never 
can  be  united  (made  one)  with  God :  but  he  can  be 
conjoined  with  Him,  this  conjunction  being  of  two, 
each  of  whom  has  his  own  separate  identity. 

Thus  the  infinite  All-Father  has  a  boundless  uni 
verse  of  creatures  to  whom  He  may  give  Himself, 
and  thus  satisfy  the  infinite  desire  of  His  infinite 
love.  And  then  this  love  labors  infinitely  to  make 
this  reception  of  Himself  larger,  more  entire  and 
perfect.  All  below  man  can  have  but  a  reception 
of  the  divine  life  limited  in  each,  at  once  and  from 
the  beginning  without  change,  by  the  limitations 
of  his  nature.  Not  so  with  man.  His  reception 
may  grow  for  ever,  more  perfect,  more  pure,  more 
unperverted ;  because  there  is  given  to  him,  in  the 
life  given  him  to  be  his  own,  the  capacity  of  grad 
ually  putting  away  from  him  all  that  resists  the 
reception  of  divine  life,  or  that  causes  the  perver 
sion  of  it  when  received. 


AND    WITH    GREAT    GLOEY.  185 

And  now  we  may  see  what  is  the  constant  end  of 
Divine  Providence  in  all  its  working.  It  is  to  make 
the  conjunction  of  man  with  Himself  more  perfect ; 
and  that  it  may  be  more  perfect,  to  help  man  to  put 
away  from  himself  all  that  opposes  or  impairs  this 
conjunction.  And  because  this  can  be  done  by  man 
only  as  the  self-love  of  his  inherited  nature  is  re 
sisted  and  put  away  by  the  exertion  of  the  strength 
given  him  to  be  his  own,  therefore  is  it  the  perpetual 
effort  of  Divine  Providence  to  strengthen  man's 
Ownhood  of  his  life,  and  to  vivify  that  Ownhood, 
that  human  life,  with  good  from  Himself,  that 
through  it  man  may  become  more  and  more  per 
fectly  conjoined  with  God. 

No  one  can  know  better  than  I  do  how  poor  and 
dim  a  presentation  of  a  great  truth  my  words  must 
give.  But  I  write  them  in  the  hope  that  they  may 
suggest  to  some  minds  what  may  expand  in  their 
minds  into  a  truth,  and,  germinating  there,  grow  and 
scatter  seed-truth  widely  abroad.  I  am  sure  only  of 
this:  The  latest  revelation  offers  truths  and  prin 
ciples  which  promise  to  give  to  man  a  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  his  being  and  of  his  relation  to  God, 
—  of  the  relation  of  the  Infinite  to  the  Finite.  It 
gives  new  motives  for  seeking,  as  well  as  new  means 
for  finding  truth,  when  that  is  sought  to  make  us 
better;  a  new  guidance  in  the  darkest  and  most  dif- 


186  THE    INFINITE    AND    THE    FINITE. 

ficult  paths  of  life,  new  comfort  in  its  desolations, 
new  strength  in  our  weakness.  It  breaks  the  seals 
of  the  Book,  written  within  and  without  and  sealed 
with  seven  seals,  which  no  man  has  hitherto  been 
able  to  open.  And  therefore  I  believe  that  it  will 
gradually,  —  it  may  be  very  slowly,  so  utterly  does 
it  oppose  man's  unregenerate  nature,  —  but  it  will 
surely  advance  in  its  power  and  in  its  influence, 
until,  in  its  own  time,  it  becomes  what  the  sun  is  in 
unclouded  noon.  And  the  sign  and  the  effect  of  its 
establishment  in  the  hearts  of  men  will  be,  that 
the  whole  earth  will  be  filled  with  the  glory  of 
the  Lord. 


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only  of  this :  The  latest  revelation  offers  truths  and  principles  which  promise  to 
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possibility  of  a  distinctive  American  Literature.  ...  It  bears  the  impress  of  New 
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Village,  so  well  and  faithfully  represented.  .  .  .  More  significant  to  our  mind  than 
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deserving  a  wider  circulation.  .  .  .  The  book  bears  the  impress  of  a  new  country, 
and  is  full  of  rough,  uncivilized,  but  vigorous  life.  The  leading  idea  which  it  seems 
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4 all  things' — even  the  sins,  follies,  mistakes,  so  rife  among  men — can  be  made 
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Christianity,  a  tender  compassion  for  the  present  condition  of  man,  and  an  abiding 
hope  through  love  of  what  his  destiny  may  be.  ...  But  all  who,  like  Margaret, 
'  dream  dreams,'  and  '  see  visions,'  and  look  for  that  time  to  come  when  man  shall 
have  'worked  out  his  own  salvation,"  and  peace  shall  reign  on  earth,  and  good-will 
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From  the  Christian  Register. 

"  This  is  a  remarkable  book.  Its  scene  is  laid  in  New  England,  and  its  period 
•ome  half  century  ago.  Its  materials  are  drawn  from  the  most  familiar  element" 
of  every-day  life.  Its  merits  are  so  peculiar,  and  there  is  so  mueh  that  is  origina." 
and  rich  in  its  contents,  that,  sooner  or  later,  it  will  be  appreciated.  It  is  impossi 
ble  to  predict  with  assurance  the  fate  of  a  book,  but  we  shall  be  much  mistaken 
if  Margaret  does  not  in  due  season  work  its  way  to  a  degree  of  admiration  seldooi 
attained  by  a  work  of  its  class." 

Sold  everywhere.  Mailed,  Prepaid,  on  receipt  of  Price, 
by  the  Publishers. 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,'  BOSTON. 


ARTHUR  HELPS'S  WRITINGS. 


1.  REALMAH.     A  Story.     Price  $2.00. 

2.  CASIMIR  MAREMMA.    A  Novel.     Price  $2.00. 

3.  COMPANIONS   OF  MY   SOLITUDE.     Price  $1.50. 

4.  ESSAYS  WRITTEN  IN  THE  INTERVALS  OF  BUS 

INESS.     Price  $1.50. 

<?.  BREVIA     Short  Essays  and  Aphorisms.     Price  $1.50. 
From  the  London  Review. 

"The  tale  (REALMAH)  is  a  comparatively  brief  one,  intersected  by  the 
conversations  of  a  variety  of  able  personages,  with  most  of  whose  names 
and  characters  we  are  already  familiar  through  '  Friends  in  Council.' 
Looking  at  it  in  connection  with  the  social  and  political  lessons  that  are 
wrapt  up  in  it,  we  may  fairly  attribute  to  it  a  higher  value  than  could  pos 
sibly  attach  to  a  common  piece  of  fiction." 

From  a  Notice  by  Miss  E.  M.  Converse. 

"There  are  many  reasons  why  we  like  this  irregular  book  (Rcalmah).  in 
which  we  should  find  the  dialogue  tedious  without  the  story;  the  story  dull 
without  the  dialogue;  and  the  whole  unmeaning,  unless  we  discerned  the 
purpose  of  the  author  underlying  the  lines,  and  interweaving,  now  here, 
now  there,  a  criticism,  a  suggestion,  an  aphorism?  a  quaint  illustration,  an 
exhortation,  a  metaphysical  deduction,  or  a  moral  inference. 

"  We  like  a  book  in  which  we  are  not  bound  to  read  consecutively,  whose 
leaves  we  can  turn  at  pleasure  and  find  on  every  page  something  to  amuse, 
interest,  and  instruct.  It  is  like  a  charming  walk  in  the  woods  in  early 
summer,  where  we  are  attracted  now  to  a  lowly  flower  half  hidden  under 
soft  moss ;  now  to  a  shrub  brilliant  with  showy  blossoms ;  now  to  the  gran 
deur  of  a  spreading  tree;  now  to  a  bit  o*"  leecy  cloud ;  and  now  to  the  blue 
of  the  overarching  sky. 


From  a  Notice  by  Miss  If.   W.  Preston. 

"  It  must  be  because  the  reading  world  is  unregenerate  that  Arthur  Helps 
is  not  a  general  favorite.  Somebody  once  said  (was  it  Ruskin,  at  whose 
imperious  order  so  many  of  us  read 'Friends  in  Council,' a  dozen  years 
ago?)  that  appreciation  of  Helps  is  a  sure  test  of  culture.  Not  so  much 
that,  one  may  suggest,  as  of  a  certain  native  fineness  and  excellence  of 
mind.  The  impression  prevails  among  some  of  those  who  do  not  read  him, 
that  Helps  is  a  hard  writer.  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous.  His  man 
ner  is  simplicity  itself;  his  speech  always  winning,  and  of  a  silvery  dis 
tinctness.  There  are  hosts  of  ravenous  readers,  lively  and  capable,  who, 
if  their  vague  prejudice  were  removed,  would  exceedingly  enjoy  the  gentle 
wit,  the  unassuming  wisdom,  and  the  refreshing  originality  of  the  author 
in  question.  There  are  men  and  women,  mostly  young,  with  souls  that 
sometimes  weary  of  the  serials,  who  need  nothing  so  much  as  a  persuasive 
ieuide  to  the  study  of  worthier  and  more  enduring  literature.  For  most  of 
J;hose  who  read  novels  with  avidity  are  capable  of  reading  something  else 
'with  avidity,  if  they  only  knew  it.  And  such  a  guide,  and  pleasantest  of  all 
such  guides,  is  Arthur  Helps.  *  *  Yet  'Casimir  Maremma'  is  a  charming 
book,  and,  better  still,  invigorating.  Try  it.  You  are  going  into  the  country 
for  the  summer  months  that  remain.  Have  '  Casimir'  with  you,  and  have 
'  Realmnh,'  too.  The  former  is  the  pleasanter  book,  the  latter  the  more  pow 
erful.  But  if  you  like  one  you  will  like  the  other.  At  the  least  you  will  rise 
from  their  perusal  with  a  ^r.iteful  sense  of  having  been  received  for  a  time 
into  a  select  and  happy  circle,  where  intellectual  breeding  is  perfect,  and  the 
struggle  for  brilliancy  unknown. 

Sold  everywhere.  Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  adver 
tised  price,  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Bosxox. 


PINK   AND   WHITE   TYRANNY. 


BY  MRS.  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE, 

Author  of  "  Uncle  Tottfs  Cabin?   u  The  Minister^ 
Wooing?  &*c. 

With  Illustrations,    i  vol.  i6mo.    Price  $1.50. 

This  vivid  and  pointed  novel  of  modern  society  presents  to  us  in  a  story 
which  will  not  be  called  exaggerated,  some  of  those  phases  of  life  around  us  which 
are  none  the  less  dangerous  because  they  are  called  contemptible.  The  extrava 
gance  of  the  newly  rich,  who  have  never  learned  the  use  of  money,  and  the  failure 
of  the  substitutes  by  which  people  who  live  by  sensation  try  to  supply  the  place 
of  honor  and  religion,  have  never  been  portrayed  more  precisely.  At  the  same 
time  Mrs.  Stowe  does  justice  to  that  sex  which  is  not  enough  remembered  in  the 
discussion  of  the  wrongs  of  Woman.  For  she  describes,  as  no  one  else  can  de 
scribe,  the  tyranny  under  which  a  loyal  and  chivalrous  gentleman  suffers  most 
terribly.  The  pen,  which  more  than  any  other  quickened  the  public  heart  till  the 
black  slavery  of  centuries  was  broken,  will  render  a  service  not  less  considerable, 
if  it  so  wake  the  conscience  of  men  and  women  that  pink  and  white  tyranny  of 
women  over  men  shall  be  impossible. 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

BOSTON 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


THE  GREAT  RELIGIOUS  BOOKS  OF  THE  DAY. 


ECCE  HOMO. 
ECCE  DEUS. 


Although  It  \s  now  two  years  since  the  publication  of  "  Ecce  Homo,"  and  one 
rear  since  "  Ecce  Deus  "  appeared,  the  sale  of  these  extraordinary  and  remarkable 
books  continues  quite  as  large  as  ever.  Some  of  the  ablest  and  most  cultivated 
minds  in  the  world  have  been  devoted  to  a  critical  analysis  of  them. 

The  foremost  man  in  England,  the  Right  Honorable  W.  E.  Gladstone,  has  just 
published  a  book  devoted  entirely  to  a  review  of  "  Ecce  Homo,"  in  which  he  uses 
the  following  language :  — 

"  To  me  it  appears  that  each  page  of  the  book  breathes  out,  as  it  proceed*,  what 
we  may  call  an  air,  which  grows  musical  by  degrees,  and  which,  becoming  more 
distinct  even  as  it  swells,  takes  form,  as  in  due  time  we  find,  in  the  articulate  con 
clusion,  '  Surely,  this  is  the  Son  of  God ;  surely,  this  is  the  King  of  Heaven.' " 

Of  "  Ecce  Deus,"  which  may  be  considered  the  complement  of  "  Ecce  Homo,' 
there  are  almost  as  many  admirers,  the  sale  of  both  books  being  nearly  alike. 

Both  volumes  bound  uniformly      Sold  separately.     Price  of  each,  $1.60. 

Prof.  Ingraham's  Works. 

THE    PRINCE    OP    THE    HOUSE    OP    DAVID;    or,   Three 

Years  in  the  Holy  City. 

THE  PILLAR  OP  FIRE ;    or,  Israel  in  Bondage. 
THE  THRONE  OP  DAVID  ;    from  the  Consecration  cf  the  Shepherd 

of  Bethlehem  to  the  Rebellion  of  Prince  Absalom. 

The  extraordinary  interest  evinced  in  these  books,  from  the  date  of  their  pub 
lication  to  the  present  time,  has  in  no  wise  abated.  The  demand  for  them  is  still 
is  large  as  ever. 

In  three  volumes,  12mo,  cloth,  gilt,  with  illustrations.  Sold  separately.  Price 
of  each,  $2.00. 

The  Heaven  Series. 

HEAVEN    OTJR    HOME.      We  have  no  Saviour  but  Jesus,  and  no  Home 

but  Heaven. 
MEET    FOR    HEAVEN.     A  State  of  Grace  upon  Earth  the  only  Prep*. 

ration  for  a  State  of  Glory  in  Heaven. 
LIFE    IN    HEAVEN.      There  Faith  is  changed  into  Sight,  and  Hope  is 

passed  into  Blissful  Fruition. 
From  Rev.  Samuel  L.  Tattle,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  American  Bible  Soeitty 

"  I  wish  that  every  Christian  person  could  have  the  perusal  of  these  writings. 
I  can  never  be  sufficiently  thankful  to  him  who  wrote  them  for  the  service  that  he 
has  rendered  to  me  and  all  others.  They  have  given/ortn  and  mbstancr  to  every 
thing  revealed  in  the  Scriptures  respecting  our  heavenly  home  of  /ore,  and  they 
have  done  not  a  little  to  invest  it  with  the  most  powerful  attractions  to  my  heart. 
Since  I  hive  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  following  the  thought  of  their  author,  I  have 
felt  that  there  was  a  realitv  in  all  these  things  which  I  have  never  felt  before ;  and 
I  find  myself  often  thanking  God  for  putting  it  into  the  heart  of  a  poor  worm  of 
the  dust  to  spread  such  glorious  representations  before  our  race,  all  of  whom 
stand  in  need  of  such  a  IVM  ." 

In  three  volumes,  16mo.     Sold  separately      Price  of  earh,  $1  25. 

Hailed,  post-paid,  to  any  address,  on  receipt  of  the  price  by  the  publish*** 
10 


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WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
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OVERDUE. 


FEB  1   1933 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


